The Scarlet Rogue (A Full Zootopia Sequel)
by RoboBoogie
Summary: It has been several years after the events of Zootopia and Nick and Judy have settled into their new roles. Nick is a full time father while Judy is the Assistant Superintendent for Zootopia. Their life is about as picture perfect as it can get. That is until the redevelopment of Nick's old neighborhood causes their lives to take an unexpected turn.
1. Chapter 1

Nick's ears perked up as his insistent alarm sounded, telling him that it was time to wake up. He opened one eye to get a look at the clock, checking to make sure it really was time to wake up. It didn't seem to matter how many times he did this; the clock was always right. At the same time though it did precious little to make getting up out of the bed easier. Hearing Judy shift next to him as she began to hear the alarm too though, he decided to get going.

He rolled out of bed, adjusting the covers as he got up to make sure that Judy stayed tucked in. Moving as quietly as he could he went to the bathroom and began his morning routine. It was routine to him at this point, boring, but comfortable. He liked to make a game out of it, to see how quickly, how quietly and with how much flare he could carry out his morning chores. After getting dressed he went to the kitchen and began to cook breakfast, pausing for a moment to decide what he would be making for the kits and Judy today. Looking in the fridge he noticed there were only four eggs, not enough for all five of them. Nick quietly commented on the dilemma to himself, his decision having apparently been made for.

"Looks like pancakes today, though I will have to buy more eggs later..." He said clicking his tongue

Moving deftly, he got out the flour, the milk, the eggs, the frying pan, and of course, the blueberries. He popped a few blueberries into his mouth as he started mixing together the ingredients, breaking all four eggs at once with two in each paw, then passed the shell halves in his left paw to his right, and added the milk with well-practiced skill, not looking as he bent down to throw out the shells in the trash he had opened with his foot. In a mere half hour, Nick had gone from lying in bed to being fully dressed and making pancakes for the other four members of his household. He checked the clock and whistled low when he figured out his time.

"Not bad… Shaved an extra minute off with that egg trick."

With the pancakes on the stove, Nick watched carefully, flipping each of them with just a bit of flare. Another five minutes and the pancakes were ready to go. He set them on a plate in the middle of the table as he prepared a pitcher of orange juice, the other plates and the syrup. Now all that was left was to wake up the others and make the kits their lunches.

First he stopped by the sisters, gently knocking on their door before letting himself in.

"Morning girls… Guess what daddy made for breakfast?" The two groaned in unison, the rabbit letting her foot twitch and the fox her tail. Sensing they were going to be a little more difficult than usual this morning Nick decided to pick on Nicole first. She was laying in bottom bunk with her red ears and long bushy tail peeking out from under the covers.

"Nicole, what do you think daddy made for breakfast?" She flopped over in her bed, attempting to shield her eyes from the light Nick was letting in.

"I don't know, oatmeal?" Nick chuckled a little and looked up towards Jessica whose long ears were hanging off the side of the bunk bed.

"How about you Jessica?" She too flopped away from him, trying to avoid the light.

"Uh… Eggs?" Nick stood there smugly.

"You're both wrong, but I'll give you a hint. It involves blueberries."

At this they both shot up and started sniffing the air before saying in unison.

"Pancakes!" They started towards the door but Nick held out a stern paw.

"Hold on girls! Remember, you need to get dressed first." They both looked towards each other and gave a singular determined nod.

Content that he now had two up, he went on to the third. Opening the door to his room, Nick walked over to the curtain and slowly began to open it, letting the morning light in as well as the sight of the city just waking up below. In the bed a small shape stirred. Marcus squinted his eyes tightly closed and pulled the blanket over his head, leaving only his jet black ears exposed. Nick rolled his eyes a little at this before musing on everyone else's morning routines to himself.

"Wow, how are you all such heavy sleepers? Ah well, looks like the only way I am waking up this silly bunny is with tickles." The ears immediately perked up at the word 'tickles.' Marcus let out a small protest but was drowned out by the fit of laughter that overcame him as his Nick tickled him mercilessly.

Content that he was now definitely awake Nick told him about the blueberry pancakes, his emerald eyes lighting up and told him the same thing he had told the girls. Setting out his clothes for the day, Nick moved on to the last resident of their apartment he had to wake up. He walked through the open door to their bedroom and knocked on it before addressing her in a satirical official voice.

"Assistant Superintendent Judy Wilde! Your presence is requested at the dining table!" Judy flopped towards Nick, letting her eyes open up lazily.

"Is that so chief Wilde?" Nick walked towards the bed, sitting near the head when he reached it.

"That's right. Besides, you might not get any breakfast if you don't hurry up." Nick leaned in and gave Judy a kiss on the head.

"Oh, how come?" She laughed a little at how absurdly cute Nick was being, turning her head to try and keep her eyes on him.

"I made pancakes, with blueberries."

By the time Nick had blinked, Judy had already shot out of the bed and was out the door. Nick attempted to voice his protest at her not being properly dressed, but she simply responded by stopping in the door frame and playfully mocking him.

"Catch me if you can officer Wilde!"

Nick stood up from the bed stretching his arms a little, and headed back towards the kitchen only to find that the stack of pancakes was now empty. Before he could protest though, Judy gave a bemused chuckle and took two of her pancakes from her stack and set them on Nick's plate. Satisfied, Nick went and picked up his tablet and sat down with the rest of the family, eating pancakes with one paw and reading the morning news with the other. The sound of chewing filled the air as they enjoyed Nick's cooking, while Judy peeked over his shoulder to read the morning headlines. Marcus though, having grown bored with his food now decided it was worth attacking with his teeth directly rather than knife and fork.

"Rawr!" He said slamming face first into his plate. His sisters squealed across from him, trying to avoid the droplets of syrup and pancake that were threatening to land on them. Nick lowered his tablet and gave a stern look towards Marcus. Before he could chastise him though Judy spoke up.

"Marcus Julian Wilde, that is _not_ how we eat at the dining table." Looking rather crestfallen, the young rabbit looked towards his dad for support.

"She's right you know. Besides, a real predator wouldn't be nearly so messy with their food. Makes it very difficult to clean up after." Having lost both avenues of support, Marcus resigned himself to his defeat.

"Aww shucks."

Checking the time, Nick noticed that if he didn't hurry that the girls would miss the bus to school. Packing in the last of his pancakes he wiped off his paws on his napkin and got the girls lunches.

"Okay girls, the bus is arriving in fifteen minutes so we better hurry up." Once again they spoke in unison.

"Okay dad!"

Rushing from the dining table they returned with their backpacks and shoes on not a minute later. Nick bent down and put Jessica's lunch in her backpack and handed Judy Nicole's lunch to put in hers. Holding their hands, he led the girls downstairs and stood with them at the bus stop. Right on time, the bus rolled up to the apartment building and picked them up along with the other kids from the building. Job done, he headed back upstairs in time to see Judy tickling Marcus in her assistant superintendent uniform before giving him a kiss goodbye. Reaching Nick, she drew him tightly for a hug before giving him a kiss.

"Have a good day at the office carrots." Leaving the embrace Judy headed towards the stairs.

"You too sweetie. Oh, by the way, please fill in my calendar for when the girls have their school play and when Marcus has his recital."

"Of course, see you later tonight." Judy gave him one last parting glance as she headed down the stairs and towards her car parked down below.

Turing around and closing the door Nick saw Marcus with his best 'wild' face on. His teeth were bared and his paws were splayed. Nick decided to play along, today wasn't going to be a great day for him anyway.

"Oh no. A Savage predator, whatever shall I do?" Marcus rushed his father who scooped him up and swung him around in the air. Having noticed something while Marcus has been growling though Nick decided it was time to get him ready to get out the door.

"Hey. Do you know what the biggest threat is to a big scary predator?" Marcus giggled.

"Aw come on dad…"

"Say it…" Marcus folded his arms in protest, but relented.

"Tooth decay." Nick smiled and nodded at the little bunny.

"That's right slugger. Now go and brush those teeth before we go out to the doctor's office. Be quick about it too, we have an early appointment today."

Nick went to the bathroom with him and helped him brush his teeth, making sure he didn't try to cheat as he usually did. Picking him up, he took him downstairs and to the parking garage where his car sat. A sky blue minivan, specially chosen by Judy for its crash worthiness. Nick took out the key fob and put Marcus in his booster seat and then set off from the parking garage. Nick noticed Marcus was strangely silent as they drove through the crowded morning streets. He had a hunch about what was bothering him but he figured it would do more to help Marcus if he talked about it.

"Awfully quiet back their slugger. Something on your mind?" Marcus didn't say anything, instead he just nodded in the affirmative.

"Is it about going to the doctor?" Once again the little rabbit in the back seat nodded in the affirmative. Nick could tell he was nervous as he checked the back seat with the rearview mirror. He had wanted to make it a surprise, but perhaps it was better that he knew now.

"Well, I was going to wait for you to seem him yourself but this doctor? He happens to be a puma!" Marcus' eyes widened upon hearing those words.

"Really!?" It was now Nick's turn to nod and say few words.

"Yup!"

"Is he huge?"

"Mhm."

"Is he intimidating?"

"Uh huh."

"Does he crush watermelons in his mouth?"

"Been watching videos on the internet again huh kid?" Marcus giggled a little and stared out the window at the cars passing by.

Nick allowed himself a smirk, he had found his mark once again. A few minutes later he had parked the car and was now walking into the office with Marcus on his shoulders. Once again though, as soon as they entered the office he went dead silent. Nick could tell he was nervous. He didn't blame him, he never liked getting shots as a kid either. Checking in at the front desk he looked over all the forms and signed at the bottom. He picked up Marcus from his shoulders and set him down gently next to him at the receptionist's desk. Holding his hand, he took him back to one of the chairs and put him on his lap as he pulled out a story book to read with him on his tablet. Noting he still looked rather nervous, Nick tried to offer some words of comfort to his nervous son.

"Hey, buck up buddy! They're just vaccine shots, you know they won't make you _that_ sick." Marcus shook his head and looked down.

"It's not the vaccines dad, it's the needles. They hurt." Nick bounced the child on his leg playfully.

"Well yes, that is true. Some things which are good for you do hurt. But that is to keep something else from hurting you more. Besides, it will be over before you know it." Marcus nodded slowly, though he seemed unconvinced. Nick let out a quiet sigh, he felt bad making his son do this, but was for his own good. The receptionist then called his name and Nick stood up, holding Marcus' hand as he walked him through the door and into the doctor's checkup room.

Marcus was shaking as he sat in Nick's lap, clearly more than a little scared of the prospect of being poked with the needles today. He was so nervous in fact, he almost jumped when the doctor entered the room. In a flash though, Marcus' nervousness was replaced with awe as he stared at the massive puma.

"Wow! You weren't kidding dad! He really is a puma!"

The puma smiled at the little bunny, bemused he hadn't said anything and yet already had a fan. Nick looked the doctor over and attempted to explain his son's behavior as he set Marcus down and stood up.

"He loves predators, thinks they're just the greatest. The bigger, the scarier, the better. Nick Wilde, pleasure to meet you doctor…?" Reaching out his paw for a handshake, his gesture was quickly reciprocated.

"Miguel Sanchez, and the pleasure is all mine. It is very rare I meet someone so excited to see their doctor." He reached down and gave Marcus a playful boop on the nose. Doctor Sanchez reached down and picked Marcus up, setting him down on the examination table to begin his physical.

His fascination with the puma began to wane towards the end of the physical, anticipating that he was soon to receive his inoculations. Picking up on his nervousness doctor Sanchez struck up some conversation as he prepared the inoculation site on his arm.

"So, Marcus, tell me, would you like to see me growl?" His eyes lit up at this offer.

"Yeah!" Doctor Sanchez's voice lowered, and he spoke to him in a hushed tone.

"Are you sure? Most animals would be terrified of it."

"Yes! I promise, you won't scare me!" Nick's face went from bemused to nervous in a second. The good doctor couldn't be serious; it would scare his son half to death.

Before Nick could raise his objections though the doctor gave Marcus a predatory look and then… Stuck his tongue out at him. Marcus nearly fell over laughing, clutching his stomach as he laughed so hard his sides hurt. Bringing him back to the upright position the physician gave him another serious look.

"Want to see another?" Marcus could only giggle in response.

This time the doctor crossed his eyes and hung his head sideways, drawing another fit of laughter from the small bunny. Once again, he had to be pulled back up to the sitting position as he fell over in a fit of laughter. Before he could even say anything the doctor started to blink one eye at a time resulting in one final peel of laughter. Nick stood there perplexed, it seemed like an awful lot of work to go through to make the kid calm down before giving him his shots. Before he could ask about it though the doctor picked up Marcus and set him on the ground.

"Well, it seems we're all done here. Now, what flavor lollipop would you like?" Marcus beamed from ear to ear.

"Cherry! Hey… Wait a minute… What about my shots?" The puma gave a mischievous smile.

"I already gave them to you. See the band aid on your left arm?" Marcus looked down surprised to see the band aid which he hadn't noticed up until that point.

"Wow! Doctor Sanchez you're the best!" Nick whistled low at this.

"I'll say, you really are the best when it comes to childcare aren't you?" Doctor Sanchez chuckled a little at this.

"Well, I won't say I'm the best, but I like to think I have some pretty unique skills. Oh, hey, you said your name was Wilde right?" Nick nodded, not entirely sure what was so odd about that.

"Yup."

"You didn't happen to grow up in the Canidae neighborhood did you?" Nick raised an eyebrow, then his eyes went wide as he realized what the puma was going on about.

"You're that Sanchez!? Oh my goodness, I haven't seen you in years! I didn't know you went to medical school!" The puma laughed a little at this, giving Nick a serious look though as he responded.

"Yes, it wasn't easy to get there though. I barely made it into a decent college thanks to our school. In any case though, I wanted to bring something to your attention regarding that. Tell me, have you read about this?" The doctor took out his own tablet and pulled up an article for Nick to look at. It said, 'Real Estate Developer to Tear Down Canidae Neighborhood.' Nick shook his head as he read through the article.

"Really? That's a little sad. I mean, sure, it wasn't the best neighborhood, but I think this is a little extreme." The puma nodded and gave Nick a serious look.

"Yes, extreme, and wrong. He is going to evict thousands so he can re-build that stretch of blocks Mr. Wilde. I have a petition here to demand that the city launch an official investigation into how this Mr. Ramirez got the rights to the land so quickly. I would be honored if you signed it." Nick looked pensively at the article, his eyes stopping over the photo of a puma dressed in a white suit, the caption reading 'Santiago Ramirez Addressing Supporters at City Hall.'

"A puma huh, what are the odds? Sure, I'll sign your petition." Nick got out the carrot pen that Judy had given him years ago and signed the petition. Picking up Marcus, Nick shook the doctors paw and got ready to leave.

"Well, it's been a pleasure doctor Sanchez, but I got get this little rascal to pre-school. Hope to see you around." The puma raised his paw as Nick left, one last thing on his mind.

"If you want to get more involved, I hear that there's a protest going on today. Anyway, see you two later!" Nick walked back out to the minivan, the words of the doctor still ringing in his ears. Someone was seriously going to tear down the neighborhood he grew up in? However, right now he didn't have time for that. He needed to take Marcus to pre-school. Then he could worry about political demonstrations!

 **Author's Note:**

 **I was extremely reticent to share this story because I originally wanted it to be something that only a few of the authors of Zootopia knew about. Basically, I sent it to four writers as a bit of fan mail explaining that I think that a sequel has potential beyond Nick X Judy. However, seeing as they never acknolwedged it I figured that you guys would probably get more enjoyment out of it. So, even though the story is all set and ready to go (I finished it over the summer) I will be releasing chapters weekly. With nothing left to say buckle up and get ready for some quality FanFiction!**


	2. Chapter 2

Judy walked into the ZPD as she normally did when she was in uniform. There was a certain swagger that came with rank, a kind of presence that was hard to ignore. It was the sort of thing that would give most individuals a considerable gravitas as they entered the room. With Judy Wilde though, it looked more adorable than anything else. However, no one would ever say that to her face. No, Assistant Superintendent Judy Wilde was one of the most respected, and feared, members of the force. She did not accept incompetence and did not tolerate abuse of power in any form, regardless of the costs to her politically.

Judy passed by Clawhauser and walked straight to her office, located just across from that of Chief Bogo. Plastered across the walls were photos of her crowning moments at the ZPD, as well as her diploma's and other professional pieces of paper that didn't really mean very much to her. On her desk, facing her, were her most important photos. Those of her family, of her parents and of Nick back when she and him were both on the force. Right next to that photo was the one of their wedding day, and consequently, the day that Nick resigned from the force. She still sometimes wondered where life would have taken her if she and Nick had continued to work together, but she knew that Nick had to stay at home. He simply hated the idea of their children not having the kind of one on one attention that he felt all kits needed. His best argument of course was simply 'well look at how I turned out.' She couldn't argue with him, and in all honesty she was thankful that he had been the one willing to give up on his career to be a stay at home dad.

Judy stopped looking at the photos that sat around the edge of her desk and positioned herself in her enormous chair to begin the day's work by logging into her computer. It wasn't a minute later though that Chief Bogo came busting in through the door to her office, obviously flustered and a little dazed. Judy steeled herself for what she knew was going to be a tough assignment, but kept her face focused on the screen, refusing to look up until she had been addressed.

"Assistant Superintendent Hopps I-" Judy coughed audibly and absentmindedly pointed at the name tag on her desk. Bogo looked up to see this and sighed, quickly correcting himself.

"Sorry, Assistant Superintendent _Wilde_. That will just never sit right with me and you know it."

"I know, and I don't care. Now, what is it that I have to deal with today." Chief Bogo adjusted his glasses as he looked down at his tablet.

"Seems that we have a situation in the Canidae neighborhood today." Judy sank into her chair, her paws moving to massage her temples.

"Let me guess, there was another robbery?"

"Nope."

"Mass carjacking?"

"Guess Again."

"Arson?"

"Give up?"

"Yeah, sure. Hit me." Bogo swiped on his tablet and sent a document over to Judy's screen.

"Mass demonstrations. They didn't tell the city about this ahead of time and we've got to find a way to break this up before it gets all over the six o'clock news." Judy stared at the screen, slightly perplexed at what she was seeing.

"I don't get it. This is a neighborhood known for crime and poverty, not political action. What's going on?" Bogo shrugged as removed his glasses and tried to explain.

"Well… Wilde… Mammals tend to get a bit restless when they are threatened with mass eviction from their homes. Seems that it's the only thing that can get these folks organized enough to put together a rally. Sadly, that rally is illegal and I need you to take a task force and shut it down as peacefully as possible. Understood?" Judy nodded towards Bogo.

"Right chief. I'll have a task force assembled and down there within the next two hours."

"Good, I know I can count on you… Wilde…"

With that Bogo left the room shaking his head ever so slightly, and Judy was left to put together a force to try and deescalate what could very easily turn into a violent situation. Judy mused to herself how it seemed that Bogo always left the thorniest jobs to her.

"As usual, only the simplest jobs are left to the assistant superintendent." Judy allowed herself a long sigh as she moved her back into her chair, taking just a minute to collect her thoughts as she stared at the ceiling fan above her.

Closing her eyes and breathing deeply Judy snapped right back to work, reaching for the keyboard and strapping on a headset to start making the necessary calls to assemble her task force. Her keyboard was a blur of action as she opened and edited multiple windows on her monitor, whilst simultaneously talking to various officers and secretaries across the ZPD to figure out just who was available, and out of that group, which would be the most suited to the task at hand.

After only a half hour she had fully fleshed out a spreadsheet full of the officers that she would need as well as the radio channels for them to use. She had divided them up to their various teams and had sent them all their corresponding emails with the relevant information. Judy Wilde was known as many things in the ZPD, but inefficient was certainly not one of them. Looking at the clock she figured that she should start heading downstairs to the bullpen to organize the officers.

 _Still got an hour and a half to go._

Grabbing a tablet, she jumped from her chair and adjusted her hat. She was now ready to face her fellow officers and give them their marching orders. Arriving at the bullpen exactly three minutes before the start of the meeting she tapped lightly on the door to announce her presence. The officers all stood at attention as she entered the room, giving them a crisp salute before moving to the podium to begin the briefing.

Judy explained in simple terms the situation as it stood. There was an unannounced rally in the Canidae neighborhood and they were being sent in to _deescalate_ the situation. She listed off everyone's commanding officers and the radio frequencies that they were going to be using for the operation. Concluding her portion of the briefing she decided to ask the officers if they had any questions.

"So, anyone have any questions about this operation?" One of the officers in the back raised her hoof.

"Yes. You said we're supposed to leave out riot gear in our cars when we arrive. That seems… Unwise, given the neighborhood and all." Judy nodded towards the officer.

"That's right. We want to be prepared for any situation, at the same time though we need to make sure that we don't cause the protesters to feel unduly threatened. Ideally, no one has to get arrested today, and no store fronts need to be vandalized." A few snickers could be heard from some of the officers in the room. Judy glowered towards the back and locked eyes with one of the offenders.

"Something funny officer Marino?" The wolf chuckled a little before straightening up when he noticed that he was being stared down.

"No! Well, it's just that this _is_ the Canidae neighborhood. This is one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city, we can't honestly expect them to behave peacefully can we?" Judy tried not to let her annoyance show.

"If you want individuals to follow the law, you must first _trust_ them to do so. Wearing our uniforms as opposed to the riot gear is a sign of trust. We'll only react if that trust is broken. Until that point, we'll treat them no different than members from any other neighborhood within the city. That means all of you. Understood?" The officers, sensing that the time for conversation was over now responded in unison.

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Good. Now, let's get going."

Judy hopped down from the podium, exiting the door at the front of the bullpen. Clawhauser was waiting outside for her.

"Nice speech Judy!" Judy motioned for them to walk and talk.

"Thanks Clawhauser. I really don't have a good feeling about this. I've seen a lot of things in the Canidae neighborhood, but an organized demonstration isn't one of them. Hey, you want to drive the command center?" Clawhauser nodded in agreement.

"Sure! Wait, how come you don't want to drive? I thought you loved the command center." Judy sighed, she was beginning to suspect that dissatisfaction would be a running theme today.

"Yeah, but I don't think I can leave the comms for a second today. This is going to be a delicate situation and I don't want anything happening without me knowing about it."

They talked about a few other things on the way to the parking garage. Judy's weekend, how the kits were doing and, as usual, Nick's cooking. Clawhauser gave Judy a look of admiration as she described the blueberry pancakes that she had had for breakfast as they started out on the road.

"Wow… I'm so jealous, you see Tyler and I can barely throw together a grilled cheese sandwich. Usually we just eat out."

"You could save a lot of money if you learned how to cook you know."

"Probably, but for now I think we'll be happy with the pizza place down the block."

Judy decided that she couldn't keep the polite conversation up any longer at this point. She had a job to do, and if she had guessed correctly, the first teams would be arriving near the protesters now. She put on her headset and carefully arranged the radios around her as she set up her position in front of the laptop in the command truck. As expected, the officers that arrived on the scene first were mostly ignored by the protesters. They weren't a significant force and so didn't really register to the mob as a whole. As more officers started to arrive though she could tell from the radio chatter that the protesters were taking note, and they weren't happy. It was around noon that the officers began to arrive in force.

Teams three and four had at this point started to form a thin line in front of the protesters, acting as a kind of breakwater to try and slow their march and contain them. Meanwhile, teams one and two had begun to set up barricades around the block, preventing the protesters from moving forward or backward, but allowing them to move to the sides if necessary. Everything was going by the book and Judy felt that the situation at the moment was manageable. The phrases that she heard over the radios from the protesters though were more than a bit concerning.

"You going to arrest me for peacefully demonstrating?"

"Sir this is an illegal rally; you need to go home."

"Go home? I am home, why are you guys trying to stop us from saving it?"

"Sir, please, your neighborhood can file for an investigation to be carried out by th-"

"Forget you! You cops are all the same, defending the wealthy while letting us sit out in the cold!

Judy could hear similar conversations occurring over all channels. This wasn't good, and based on the tone of the voices things were only going downhill. Judy decided to take a moment to step out of the truck and try and get a look at the situation. Jumping from car to car she eventually got to the top of the command truck from where she could get a good look at the protesters arrayed half a block in front of her. Some of them looked like they were starting to get a little pushy.

 _Strike one._ Judy picked up her radio to address teams one and two.

"Team one and team two, switch to riot gear. Teams three and four, hold your positions, teams one and two will be moving to assist over."

Grabbing her binoculars, she started to scan the crowd for individual trouble makers. Noting their positions and sending officers to intercept them before they created a larger ripple effect. With just a little luck she might just be able to keep the situation from boiling over, but then she saw something that made her heart sink. A green Hawaiian shirt. She focused the binoculars on the individual in question, there was no doubt about it, it was Nick. Reaching for her phone and putting the radio on her belt she quickly dialed Nick's number. She watched as he looked he noticed his phone and recognize the number. The smile that lighted upon his face made her feel a little better, though she was still more than a little annoyed.

"Hey carrots, how's work?"

"Why are you in the middle of an illegal protest!?"

"Oh, you're here too?"

"Yes I'm here. I was sent to disband this unlawful gathering, also, why aren't you with Marcus!?"

"Well sweetie, after picking up Marcus from pre-school I took him over to his piano lesson, which is two blocks south of here, and seeing that I was in the neighborhood I figured that I would join in on the local civil disobedience. You know, with the hour I have free before I have to go pick up the girls from school."

"Nick, you need to get out of here now! This protest wasn't cleared ahead of time and is illegal! I can't guarantee that you won't be arrested if things get ugly." She heard Nick let out a sigh on the other end of the line.

"Funny rule that, how would you protest the law that says you have to schedule a protest to protest? Maybe not announcing it would be the best way." Judy was losing patience.

"Nick!"

"Alright, alright carrots. Don't worry, I have to get going back to Marcus' piano lesson soon anyway. I'll be gone in ten minutes, promise." Judy didn't like it, then again she couldn't keep this conversation up much longer.

"Thank you."

"No problem carrots, love you."

"Love you too."

With that the conversation ended and Judy put the phone back in her pocket. She now started to notice that the radio on her belt was squawking at her quite aggressively.

"Judy, come in Judy we have a situation here." Judy picked up the radio and opened the channel, feeling slightly embarrassed that she had let a personal matter interfere with work.

"Judy here! What's the problem over?"

"Group three here, a group of protesters look like they're getting ready to rush us. We need support over."

"Roger. Group one, move to reinforce group two. I'll get on the loudspeakers and try and calm things down over."

Judy swung down from the top of the truck and jumped back into her chair in the command truck. Flipping a few switches she started up the massive loudspeaker system that was fitted to some of the cars in the taskforce. Echoing between the buildings, the sound of her voice overpowered that of the crowd.

"Citizens, please disperse. This is an illegal gathering and you are in violation of city laws. Please seek a permit to organize a protest at a later date." The crowd shouted in response to this order, apparently slightly enraged at her request. Clawhauser made sure to relay his interpretation to Judy.

"I think they disagree."

"Thanks…"

She checked the time, five minutes, she just had to keep things from getting out of hand for another five minutes. Then Nick wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. Passing the loudspeaker system to Clawhauser she told him to just repeat what she had said. Meanwhile, she got back on the radio and ordered units three and four to get their riot gear and called in the reserve units five and six. With two more units pulled from the front, and two others moving up to replace them, the protesters moved forward steadily towards the arrayed ZPD vehicles and the barricades. Over the radio Judy heard yet more bad news.

"They're trying to rush us; we can't hold our position unless we start using more force. Permission to switch to aggressive tactics over?" Judy was immediately on the channel.

"Negative! De-escalate over!"

"We can't de-escalate this situation ma'am. It's getting rough out here over!" She heard grunting and the sounds of a fight breaking out on the other end of the open channel. She looked again at the time, two minutes.

"All teams, move to the front form a wall over!"

Judy got back out of the truck in time to see that the teams had been pushed back to the barricades. Things were not going well at all. Suddenly, a group of protesters smashed though the line and made a break for the squad cars. It seemed that they were planning on tipping over some of the squad cars in response to their actions. De-escalation had totally failed. Judy swallowed hard, giving the clock one last look. It had been ten minutes; Nick was out of the area if she were to take him by his word. Jumping back into the truck, she closed the door and lock the vehicle. She got back on the radio.

"All teams fall back, use of tear gas is authorized! Repeat, use of tear gas is authorized!"

The truck began to lurch from side to side, slowly at first, then building in tempo as the protesters found a steady rhythm that would eventually help them to tip over the goliath machine. As the tempo increased though she saw a few white flashes outside the windows as clouds of gas began to expand from the canisters that had been launched into the crowd. The rocking of the command center came to a stop as the view outside was replaced with a dense white fog of gas. Judy raised her paws and tried to massage her temples as she rested her elbows on the desk.

 _Where did I go wrong today?_

Judy got back on the radio and started organizing the task force. Switching their priority from managing a protest, to trying to cleanup. The reports came filtering in of the injured officers and civilians, as well as the damaged property around where the protesters had been. They had made several arrests but what really stung her was the sound of the news helicopters overhead. She let out a long groan as she looked out the window only to see a reporter trying to capture the whole scene on camera.

It took another three hours for the whole situation to be cleaned up and the damage documented. Judy found herself back at her desk, tired, stressed out and feeling more than a little defeated. Bogo walked into her office, but Judy didn't bother to look up at him as he entered. He gave her a sorrowful look and came around to her side of the desk, landing a gentle hoof on her shoulder.

"There there Judy. I know you did your best. If this had been an easy assignment I would have handed it off to someone further down the chain of command." Judy didn't look as she responded.

"I know… It's just. Well, I don't come across situations that I can't handle all that often you know?" Bogo nodded.

"I know; we all know in fact. That's the reason that I appointed you to this position. Now, dust yourself off and get back to work. I can't have you sitting around here moping all night now can I?" Judy snapped her head up, 'night?' She took out her phone and checked the time.

"Oh no, if I don't hurry I'll miss dinner! I got to go chief, see you in the morning!"

"But!" It was already too late though, Judy had packed her things and was half way out the door before Bogo could formulate his full objection.

Judy did her best to weave through traffic to get back home in time for dinner. Parking her car and rushing to the building she ran up the stairs to their apartment, stopping just in front of the door to catch her breath and collect herself. Opening the door, she was greeted by the wonderful smell of carrot stew that Nick was preparing to serve. She was still mad at him, but figured that for right now she would simply enjoy his company and a home cooked meal with her family.

She walked over to Nick and gave him a hug and a kiss before she went back to their room to remove her uniform, returning in more casual sweatpants and t-shirt. They sat down and talked about the things that they had done that day. It was exactly the kind of thing that she loved coming home to every night, and she couldn't thank Nick enough for making that the case. Sadly, not even the best carrot soup could make up for the situation that he put her in that day and she was going to have to talk to him about it.


	3. Chapter 3

Nick started to clean up the table with Judy. He told her that she didn't have to, but she helped anyway. It was one of the thousands of little ways that she said 'thank you' every day. The kits had already been excused from the table and were now either online or watching a movie or something. Nick gave Judy a playful stare as he put the dishes in the sink and then passed them to her to put into the washing machine. She caught his eye and furrowed her brow, she knew he was up to something but she wasn't sure what.

"What are you up to slick-" Nick squeezed his paws together under the water, turning his paws into a makeshift water cannon and caught her in the face.

"Hey!" She splashed some of the dishwater back at him. Nick pretended to overreact to the water as the dishwater got on him.

"Oh no, I have been splashed. I wonder if this means I can skip out of a shower tonight?"

"Ha! No way! Now, before we have any more fun let's finish pushing these dishes away."

Setting the dishes in the dishwasher Nick and Judy wandered over to where Marcus was watching some program on the large television in the living room. It was some sort of show for young mammals about the importance of friendship and working together. Nick remembered watching similar shows when he was a kit, though whether or not he had ever taken their advice seriously was a matter of debate. Nick sat with Judy on the couch, letting her lean into his side as he pretended to watch the program with Marcus. The end of the program arrived soon enough and Nick decided that it was now time to put Marcus, Jessica and Nicole to bed. Gathering them up one by one he made sure that they all brushed their teeth and together, with Judy, tucked them all in.

After closing the door to the girls' room Nick walked back with Judy to the couch and sat down to turn on the news. He immediately regretted that decision. Right there, underlined with scrolling text was footage from the protest earlier that day. He felt Judy tense up at the sight and tried to switch the channel, but she put her paw on his before he could change it.

"I want to hear what they have to say." Nick lowered the remote and turned up the volume slightly. He didn't like where this was going but he didn't have much choice about it either.

"Several hundred residents of the Canidae neighborhood went to the streets today to try and protest what they claim is the _illegal_ demolition plans put forward by the real estate mogul Santiago Ramirez. Mr. Ramirez had this to say in response to the protesters allegations."

The screen now switched from helicopter footage of the protest covered in a fog of tear gas to a recording made in what looked like a high rise office. The puma behind the desk wore a clean white suit which seemed to be seeking to constrain his massive strength rather than exaggerate what was there. His golden yellow eyes were piercing, but he looked friendly and conversational at the same time. Opening his maw, he spoke with a cool Spanish accent that warmed itself to your ears like warm tea. Both at once intimidating, but friendly.

"What do I think of their claims? Well, they are mere allegations, baseless accusations without a shred of evidence. If they wish to challenge me, then they may do so through the legal resources that our fine city offers all citizens. However, I can't help but note the irony of the fact that these residents claim that I have broken the law, while they openly flout it. Then again, it was what I have come to expect from such wretched neighborhoods. The Canidae neighborhood is a den of thieves and con-artists and nothing more. I promise you this, in ten years Zootopia will be thanking me for ridding the city of this blemish upon its visage."

"So you're not going to change your plans to demolish the neighborhood? Doesn't that seem like a risky bet giving the current political climate?"

"Ha! I only make bets that I know I can win."

Nick felt a wave of anger and frustration crash over him as his ears retreated backwards and his eyes narrowed. Judy sat and watched impassively, he knew that she wasn't listening to the puma on screen. No, she was listening for something far more important to her. Criticism.

"That was the developer Santiago Ramirez, for more on this story we turn to our moose on the streets for the local view."

Judy seemed to relax as the moose went on to interview various locals and passersby's about the protest from earlier that day. It seemed that they weren't going mention her management of the situation at all. Nick knew what was coming but he knew that the most important thing was to make sure that she didn't blame herself.

"Judy, you know that it's a rough neighborhood. No matter how hard you tried to de-escalate that situation it would have spiraled out of control anyway." Judy responded in a cool but somewhat distant voice. It was the voice that she used whenever she felt that she had been beaten and it always left Nick feeling like he had been punched in the gut.

"How do you know that? We train our officers to deal with all forms –"

"Of psychological, physiological and all other relevant contingencies. Judy, I was a cop too, you don't need to talk to me like you would a reporter. I am telling this from experience, I was born and raised in that neighborhood you know." Judy nuzzled up next to him and looked up at him from his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. Is that why you were there today?" Nick flinched as if he had been poked by a hot iron. He knew that this conversation was coming.

"Yup."

"You were putting yourself in danger Nick. What if you had been caught in the tear gas? What if you had gotten trampled?" Nick sighed a little bit. She was right after all; he had taken a risk. But he had come out no worse for it.

"Well I had to go, I needed to support the others in the neighborhood. I can't just let an entire neighborhood go silently into the night." Judy shook her head not understanding.

"Why? You know that neighborhood is a rough place, you said so yourself. What if Santiago is right and that Zootopia really will be better off without it." Nick's temper flared a little at this, his tail giving an aggravated twitch.

"Yeah, well that would only be because none of them would be able to find anywhere else in the city to live carrots. Sure, these people might not be the best citizens in our fair city but it's not like they have much of a choice." It was now Judy's turn to be a little annoyed.

"There's always a choice Nick!" Nick almost shouted at her, he was letting his emotions get the better of him.

"No there isn't! I became a popsicle hustler not because I wanted to, but because it was the only way to make money! I couldn't get into college, or even a trade school for that matter, with the education that I got in that school district! In Canidae Judy nobody ever believed that anybody would become anything more than what they _ought_ to be. Whether that be a sly fox, or a bootlegging weasel." Judy shook her head, resigning herself to the fact that she wasn't going to win this argument.

"Well, in any case, what's important is that you could have been hurt. I know that every day you have to worry about whether or not I will make it back home. Do you really want to do the same to me? To the kits?" Nick rubbed his eyes with his paws and let out a long sigh.

"Well I didn't, and I won't do it again if it makes you so nervous okay?" Judy squeezed his arm more tightly.

"Nick listen to me, I want you to _promise_ me that no matter how this whole thing with the Canidae neighborhood works out that you won't put yourself in any danger for it. Promise?" Nick bent low and looked Judy in the eyes, speaking softly so that only she could hear.

"I promise." Judy pulled Nick in close and buried her head in his chest as Nick moved his paw around behind her head so as to cradle her.

Shattering the silence, Nick's phone began to let out an off-color set of rap lyrics as an image if Finnick greeted him on its screen. Judy let go of Nick as he laughed a little at the poor timing of it all. Judy mused on the situation as Nick let the phone ring for a bit.

"Do you think his girlfriend dumped him again?"

"Likely."

"Go give him a shoulder to cry on Nick."

Judy turned back towards the television and switched to a series that she had been meaning to catch up on with Nick at some point. Answering the phone Nick fully expected to hear Finnick choking back tears of rage, which were of course meant to hide his tears of sadness. Instead, he got a hushed urgent voice that most definitely did not sound like the Finnick that Nick knew as his part time babysitter.

"Hey, Nick. We need to talk." Nick was still sitting next to Judy and was one hundred percent confident that given her sense of hearing that she was listening to every word that they were exchanging.

"Well, I'm listening. How's the girl Casanova?" Nick gave a wink to Judy who had to stifle a giggle to keep her presence a secret.

"That's not what I'm calling about Nick, though thanks for asking, things are going really well on that front. Look, meet me downstairs in fifteen minutes. I want to have a chat with you, alone, that means you Judy." Judy turned around and grabbed the phone.

"Hey!" Finnick's deep laugh could be heard through the phone clear as day.

"Case and point Judy girl! I know you can hear a pin drop from across town. Don't worry, I won't keep Nick out past curfew." Judy pouted at the phone as Nick just shrugged in response.

"Make sure you don't."

"Great, meet me downstairs in fifteen Nick!" The connection closed with a click as Judy looked towards Nick.

"Do you believe him about the girl?" Nick gave a sly grin.

"Not a chance. Don't worry, I'll make sure that he gets me back before midnight."

He gave Judy a kiss on the forehead and put on a jacket as he headed out the front door. Judy made herself comfortable in front of the television, getting ready to watch an episode or two before she had to go to sleep herself.

Nick made his way down the staircase of the apartment building and headed out the front door into the crisp night air. He was suspicious as a sleek black van with red racing stripes came rolling towards him. It wasn't until the driver rolled down his window that Nick realized that it was Finnick.

"Get in Nick!" Nick shrugged and did as he asked. Closing the door behind him and taking a look around the spacious interior of the van.

"Nice van Finnick!"

"Thanks man, bought with the money that I'm making from my new business." Nick's eyes narrowed and he gave Finnick a suspicious look.

"What kind of business?" Finnick seemed offended by Nick's distrust, and made that loud and clear.

"Ah come on man! You know I wasn't the one who came up with our hustles! I was never clever enough for that. Nah man, I bought this car with the money from my new auto body shop. I figured that once you became a cop that I needed a new form of income, so I started painting cars." Nick relaxed.

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed –"

"Assumed what? That'd I'd do the same things as you? Ha! Nick I am a lot of things, but I am not you." Nick smiled weakly at Finnick.

"So, what's with the cloak and dagger? Why did you have to drag me out of my apartment to have a talk?" Finnick's mood went from friendly to serious in a heartbeat.

"It's about Canidae Nick. Something stinks and I need your help to find out." Nick recoiled a little bit at this. It seemed that he just couldn't get away from the consequences of his decision to participate in some light civil disobedience today.

"Whoa now, I'm not a cop anymore! Besides, I have to take care of my kits!" Finnick pulled the car into an empty lot near the bay and stopped suddenly. He turned towards Nick and gave him a deadly stare.

"Listen here Nick. I am not asking you as a friend. I am asking you as a member of your family from way back when. Back when our fathers left. Back when all we had was each other and our mothers. You may have a 'real' family now, but what we had back then was just as 'real' in my opinion. So, will you at least hear me out before you refuse?" Nick looked down at the carpet, unwilling to meet Finnick's stern gaze. He knew he was right. He knew that back then he was the closest thing that he had to a brother.

"Yeah, you're right. I'll hear you out." Finnick nodded sharply and unlocked the cars doors.

"Good. Get out and follow me." Nick got out of the van and closed his door. He looked around and tried to get a bearing on where exactly he was.

"Where are we?"

"It's a secret. Just follow me alright."

Nick shrugged and followed the little fox away from the cracked up parking lot and towards a massive warehouse that sat forlornly by the bay. Trees and tall grass grew up all around it, and it even seemed to have a few saplings poking through where the roof had once been. Whatever this place was, it didn't look like it had seen any use in decades. Finnick just kept walking towards it though, following a path through the thick grass and vines that only he seemed to be aware of. He held up one paw to tell Nick to stop as they stood in front of what looked like a solid wall of vines and overgrowth. Nick mused on the state of the building to Finnick with a sarcastic tone.

"You know; this place might need more than a weed whacker to clean up the front yard."

"Quiet Nick."

Finnick reached out to the tangle of vines and other detritus and carefully pulled on one of them. A slide opened up behind the wall of vines and a pair of eyes shone through the narrow slit. A thick Russian accent laughed jovially from behind the wall.

"Ha! It is Finnick! And you have brought friend!" Finnick snapped angrily at the voice behind the slit.

"Boris! The password man! You're supposed to ask for the password!"

"Oh, sorry. Let me try again. Password!"

"Jumbo Pop!"

"Da, that is right, you may enter."

There was a pause after the slit was thrown shut, then the wall began to move as Nick heard wheels squealing and the unmistakable sound of grinding metal. As the wall behind the vines shifted out of the way Nick saw that it wasn't being moved by some sort of mechanical system, but by Boris. An absolutely massive bear who was wearing an oil stained t-shirt and jeans. After entering the building Boris immediately began to move the rolling wall back into position. It seemed to Nick that he was standing in what used to be the loading dock of an old warehouse, though the partially disassembled cars and oil pans seemed to suggest that it had been turned into a makeshift garage. Finnick followed Nick's gaze and brightened up a little as he got ready to explain what was before him.

"Let me be the first to welcome you Nick to the Tragic Pack!" Nick rolled his eyes.

"You guys have a name?" Finnick looked slightly miffed at the lack of respect that Nick was giving him.

"Yeah, you got a better one? Don't answer that, you've probably got five. Anyway, this is the garage where our mechanic Boris works. Best mechanic in the whole Canidae neighborhood. Boris, this is Nick, you remember him right?"

"Da, I remember you tricking me into buying faulty spark plugs." Nick shifted uneasily as the bear stood over him.

"All water under the bridge, right big guy?" The bear nodded slowly, turning away from Nick to grab one of his tools.

"Da, we have bigger problems now anyway than cheap spark plugs. My job is to fix cars good. Santiago though, I fix for free." He said while brandishing a wrench menacingly.

"His code name is Camshaft. Don't ask him to explain it."

"But is clever!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever big guy."

Finnick led Nick past the renovated loading dock and into the main building of the warehouse. Inside, the main floor had been divided up into different sections, each apparently meant for some specific job. It was like walking into the middle of a secret government agency. Except, the biggest secret of that agency was that it was flat broke. Finnick led him over to the nearest station. Several steel shelving units sat packed full of old computers, all of the lights from the various machines working together to create a star-scape of different colored lights. Sitting at a desk was a pig wearing shorts, a t-shirt and glasses as she sat in front of a computer monitor with a cup of coffee in one hoof.

"This is Mabel, code name Whiz. Mabel, this is-"- Mabel didn't even bother to look away from her screen as she addressed Nick.

"Nick Wilde, former ZPD Police Officer and Popsicle Hustler. Married to Assistant Superintendent Judy Wilde and father to three kits. Currently works full time as a stay at home dad. That all right?" Nick looked a little shocked at how much she knew about him.

"How did you-"

"The internet, it's a thing okay. I used to work as a security consultant, but now I am planning to trash the systems that I helped make. Kind of funny that. For once I am hoping that they _didn't_ update the dang firewall." Nick just stood there, more than a little concerned that all it took was a mirthless pig with a keyboard to learn his entire life history. Finnick grabbed Nick's paw and took him to the next station.

Next there was a set of long tables with paper and various powders of different colors strewn across it. Working at a mortar and pestle was a large panda bear who turned around to greet them as they approached.

"Nick, this is Yao Ming, code name fuse. He is our resident explosives expert." The bear reached out a paw and shook Nick's graciously.

"It is very nice to meet you Mr. Wilde; I remember that I used to sell fireworks to you when you were little. Tell me, what did you do with all of them?" Nick rubbed the back of his neck and kicked the floor a little.

"Nothing good I assure you." Ming let out a long laugh and let go of Nick's paw and got back to work.

Nick followed Finnick as he walked to an area that was covered in training mats from a martial arts school. Standing on the mat was a sika deer in full karate robes, practicing her moves in slow motion.

"This is Kiku Yamashita, code name sensei. She will hopefully be teaching you how to do some basic martial arts. You know, just in case. Kiku, this is Nick Wilde" She bowed gracefully towards Nick.

"A pleasure to meet you." Nick was caught off guard by the bow and fumbled to try and return the gesture. She laughed a little at this before holding out a hoof for Nick to shake.

Finnick now led him towards a cluster of filing cabinets and bookshelves. Hidden behind the wall of books and mountains of paper Nick could see the antlers of a moose peeking through.

"This is Mike Hanson, code name book worm. Right now he's trained as a lawyer and is the guy running this show. How's it going boss?" The moose stood up from behind the desk to get a better look at Nick and Finnick, adjusting his glasses accordingly. He brightened up as he looked at Nick.

"Ah, _the_ Nicholas Wilde! Good to see you! Thank you Finnick for bringing him here tonight. Mr. Wilde, I am sure you have some questions at this point so please, ask away." Nick looked around the desk, inspecting some random pieces of paper and the books on the shelves.

"Yeah, I've got some questions. For starters, where did you guys get all this stuff?"

"Our homes and businesses Nick."

"You thought it was necessary to move everything to an abandoned warehouse by the bay simply because you were planning to protest the demolition of Canidae?" The moose gave Nick a sad stare as he removed his glasses.

"We were evicted. We didn't have much of choice really. So, instead of selling off everything and leaving the city, we decided that we would set up shop here with our remaining funds and try and prove that Santiago is indeed a criminal. Or at the very least, a menace to society." Nick looked a little sad at hearing all of this, but there was something that was still bothering him.

"Right, about that. What evidence do you have that Santiago is actually doing anything criminal?" Mike lowered his head a bit in concentration before bringing it back up to address Nick.

"In a word? None. As far as we can tell he has done nothing illegal. We have a few videos of his thugs trying to intimidate land lords, but other than that we have nothing. What we _do_ have is evidence that his paws are all over the city council." He motioned for Nick to come over to his side of the desk so that he could show him his laptop screen.

"Before Santiago started buying up all the property in Canidae, he heavily supported Lion Heart's re-election campaign as well as those of several other prominent members of city hall. After getting elected they immediately changed the regulations regarding building code in Zootopia, making it so that if a building was found to be not up to code, and couldn't be brought up to code by the owner within one month, that it would be condemned." Nick nodded, starting to understand the situation a little bit better now.

"Right… And with all the old buildings in the Canidae neighborhood, the chances of actually bringing them up to code was nil."

"Exactly, meaning that the landlords and residents had two choices. Accept the bid from Santiago's company, or have a building inspector serendipitously arrive the very next day to condemn the property."

"A classic lose, lose situation."

"But legal." Nick snorted at that.

"Yeah, _legal_ , just like all of my hustles." The others had all circled around the desk by this point, all of them sharing anxious looks as Nick seemed to think over the situation.

"That's why we need you Nick. You're the only one that has the necessary skills, and the training, to help us bring to light what's been going on. We might not be able to take him to court, but we _can_ show the good citizens of Zootopia that we're the victims of an injustice." Nick furrowed his brow as he stared at the ceiling, trying to make out the few stars that managed to peek through the broken roof.

"What would I be doing?"

"You would be our leader! You would be, _The Scarlet Rogue_! The hero of the Canidae neighborhood!" Nick grinned a little at this.

"Seriously? Alright, I have to ask now. What is with these campy code names?" The moose turned around slightly embarrassed.

"I thought that it would make us more… Marketable… We needed some sort of identity, and I figured that code names and a bit of theater would be of use. Besides, I had to find some way to make use of my English degree!"

"Alright, fair enough. So, what am I supposed to dress up as? A fox in tights and a green jacket?"

"Actually, we had something a bit different in mind."

Kiku went to an old trunk and carefully pulled out a set of black robes with a red wolf kabuki mask sitting on top. She brought over to Nick, bowing a little as she passed it to him. Nick looked at the robe and the mask that were now sitting in his arms. He set the robes down on the desk and lifted the mask up to eye level to look it in its empty eyes. Finnick tugged at the side of his shirt to get his attention.

"Look man, we need you. But, it's okay to say no. I know that you have a family and everything, and I know how much they mean to you. But we wouldn't be asking this of you unless we really needed you, okay?"

Nick shook his head and took out his phone. His home screen was a picture of him and his new family. His new life. He then looked around at everyone surrounding him and closed his eyes, lest anyone see the tears that he was trying to hold back.

"No… I'll do it… I'll be the Scarlet Rogue."

The others gathered around him, cheering in unison. Setting the mask back down on top of the robes Nick took out his notepad and made a note. Writing at the top of the page 'Liar Score' he underlined it and added a tally mark below. Flipping back one page remembered that he had forgotten something very important. Taking out his phone he checked the time.

"Crackers! I need to get home Finnick!"

"Aw… Come on man! This is a big deal, let's celebrate a little!"

"Nope, have to be home before curfew. You promised too." Finnick cocked a questioning eyebrow.

"Really? What are you, some kind of princess?"

"You promised." Crossing his arms in annoyance he reluctantly agreed.

"Fine. I'll take you back home!"

"Thanks, oh and can we make a stop by the grocery store?"

"Why!?"

"Have to buy a dozen eggs."

 **Authors Note:**

 **Hi y'all! I am glad that you are enjoying this story and I encourage all of you to share it and post it anywhere and everywhere. There is nothing better in my opinion than to see my work take off in one way or another. Anyway, I plan to update in Monday's from now on so stay tuned for the next chapter next week.**


	4. Chapter 4

Judy walked into her office the next morning knowing exactly what to expect. She passed by the officers that were getting ready to go on patrol, casting a longing look towards them and their partners as she mused about what it was like to go to work every day knowing that her best friend would be right there next to her. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to sit and contemplate the past. She had a job to do in the here and now, and that job was to answer emails and complaints regarding the consequences of yesterday's protest.

Opening the door to her office she went to her desk, adjusted her photos and logged into the network. Knowing how this sort of thing usually went she counted down the seconds to herself as she waited for the next part of her day.

"Three… Two… One…" Bogo came in through the door without knocking.

"Wilde, we have something important to discuss."

"Yes sir, what might that be?"

"As I am sure you are aware of, the protest yesterday left more than a few people upset. However, there's one person in particular that the mayor wants you to meet with and reassure." Judy shook her head a little at this.

"The mayor wants me to coddle some store clerk about their broken windows? That seems a bit odd." Bogo gave a little sigh and looked up at the ceiling, clearly a bit annoyed at this himself.

"No Wilde, the mayor wants you to reassure Santiago Ramirez that his property will be protected."

"What!? I don't care that he happens to own most of that neighborhood, he's a citizen just like everyone else and he can wait in line downstairs. Why should I have to go to him to hold his paw?"

"Look Wilde, Mr. Ramirez is a very powerful individual with very powerful friends, and let's just say that the mayor has been yanking at my tail to make sure he knows that his property is _protected_. I don't like it either, but unfortunately that's how it is." Judy looked back at her desk, her eyes stopping when they landed on a picture of Nick.

"Yeah, fine I'll do it."

"Great. His driver is downstairs waiting for you." Before she could protest he was already out the door.

Judy got back out of her chair and made sure that her uniform looked crisp and well pressed in front of a small mirror. Although, ever since Nick had started ironing her uniform she had never had to worry about it _not_ looking in picture perfect condition. Putting her hat under one arm she walked out of the office and down the stairs to where the driver was supposedly waiting.

She didn't have to search the crowd in the atrium for long though to spot the individual in question. He was a tall Kangaroo in an all-black driver's outfit, his hat cocked a little off to one side. Something about the way he looked, the way he moved, the way his eyes searched the crowd though didn't sit right with her. She was one of only a few individuals who had ever seen another animal go savage, and something about the way he looked made her feel that he was right on the edge. As if he was ready to unleash the animal within at a moment's notice.

"Hello, sir? Are you Mr. Ramirez's driver?" The kangaroo looked down and then spoke with an exceptionally thick Australian accent.

"Yes ma'am. Right this way please."

He led her out the front door to a long silver car with blacked out windows. The car itself looked almost predatory to her. It's meek front end morphing into strong lines and large rear wheels that made it seem like it was ready to pounce on any smaller vehicles foolish enough to stand in its way. Opening the door to let her into the back seat, the driver closed it and got in himself before requesting a destination from his boss.

"Where to Mr. Ramirez?" The cool Spanish accent echoed from the shadowy figure sitting next to her in its characteristically refined accent.

"Just drive, Mr. Crowley."

"Right boss."

The big puma lightly pressed a button in front of him, causing a black pane of glass to rise up between their section and the drivers. The puma shifted slightly as he relaxed back into position before addressing Judy.

"Assistant Superintendent Judy Hopps."

"Wilde."

"I'm sorry? What did you say?"

"My name is Judy Wilde. I chose to take my husband's last name after we got married." The puma chuckled a little bit at this.

"I seem to recall that it was the famous Judy Hopps that saved Zootopia years ago, not Judy Wilde. So sorry that I haven't kept up to date. I must inquire though, why would you take on the name of someone so… Insignificant? The name 'Hopps' is that of a proud family of farmers who work hard and own the land that they till my dear. Why choose to take on the name of a popsicle hustler?" Judy bristled a little at this, but softened as she remembered why she had done so.

"Well… I have always had a large family, lots of siblings, a mom and dad to always help me when I needed it. Nick, well… he didn't have that. His father left when he was still a kit and his mom died in an accident when he was in his twenties. I thought, that even if it was just a name that it would mean a lot to give Nick that kind of family." The puma had been staring out the dark window this whole time, making it clear that he was listening, but not invested.

"How touching my dear. I apologize for mistaking your name, it won't happen again in the future."

"Oh, don't worry about it. A lot of people get it wrong. You're right after all, I am the famous Judy Hopps, not Judy Wilde. In any case though Mr. Ramirez, other than my last name, is there something else that you wanted to discuss?" The puma turned away from the window and looked back towards the front of the car.

"Yes. As you may have heard, either from the news or the shouts of the hooligans yesterday, I am now the _proud_ owner of most of the Canidae neighborhood. Which, as you recall, the residents seem to be less than happy about."

"Well Mr. Ramirez, when you plan to evict all the residents and demolish their homes it might be cause for them to be upset."

"Yes well, the feelings that they have for me are mutual. They are all worthless to me. Nothing but scammers, con artist and thieves. I assure you, that when I am through with that neighborhood, you and the rest of Zootopia will thank me for having gotten rid of it." Judy felt a flush of anger in spite of herself.

"My Husband is from that neighborhood, so I don't think that you can call them all criminals." The puma chuckled a little at her rage.

"My dear. If I recall correctly, I remember hearing that Mr. Wilde was a 'popsicle hustler' before he met you. You found him and produced the fine upstanding citizen that he is today. What that neighborhood produced was merely a petty criminal." Judy looked a bit crestfallen. Her parents had used that argument once before too, and there wasn't much she could do about it. The puma took another breath and spoke again.

"Mrs. Wilde, I do not feel like discussing the ethics of my actions, or my opinion of the residents of Canidae any further. What I want to know is if the ZPD can protect my property from any further damage due to illegal activity by the residents."

"I thought you were planning to demolish it anyway." The puma leaned in a little closer to Judy.

"True. But this isn't about the property itself my dear. This is about upholding the law. Am I to assume that you won't uphold the laws of Zootopia simply because you disagree with the political views of one of its citizens?" Judy closed her eyes and balled up her paws. He was right, unfortunately, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"No Mr. Ramirez." The puma leaned back and relaxed.

"Good. I expect extra officers to be posted around the neighborhood. It seems that we're back at the ZPD my dear." Santiago lowered the barrier between him and the driver and asked him to open her door. As she exited the car Santiago gave her one last remark.

"Oh, and I suspect that we will be working together for some time, so please, call me Santiago." He reached out a paw for a shake, but Judy looked away and stepped out of the car.

"Wilde is fine for me." Judy walked away from the puma's outstretched paw back towards the station. Santiago gave her a baleful stare but returned to his relaxed position as the driver shut the door to the car.

Judy muttered to herself all the way back to her office. Who was this puma to tell her how to do her job? Who was he to decide the worth of an entire community? She just couldn't stand it. Opening the door to her office she moved back to her desk and waited for the entrance of chief Bogo. Leaning her head against her paw as she curtly greeted the chief.

"Hi." Bogo looked a little flush.

"Everything went well I assume?" Judy snorted.

"Yeah, sure, if you call being told by a rich jerk that I need to clamp down on a neighborhood a good thing." Bogo sighed a little, he had expected this.

"Wilde, you know that he's right. I have a list of officers here that you can assign to Canidae who are familiar with the area." She flashed a look of annoyance at Bogo.

"Not you too!"

"Look Wilde, regardless of whether you like the cat or not we have to keep law and order in that neighborhood, and based on how things went yesterday there's a good chance that order is going to suffer."

"I just don't like it, that's all. I don't like that some rich real estate feline can just walk into Zootopia, get his paws all over city hall, and then expect us to do exactly as he says." Bogo gave her a serious look.

"Is that a 'no' Wilde?" There was a pause as Judy tried to drag the words out of herself.

"No, I'll assign the extra officers."

Bogo nodded at her, deciding that at the moment it would be best to give her some space to be alone. After he left the office Judy looked at the pictures on her desk, her eyes pausing once again on the one of her and Nick. She picked up the photo and brought it close to her before setting it face down on the desk, her ears hanging behind her head. There were some days where she really hated this job.

 **Author's Note:**

 **As usual, thanks for reading! For those of you who have submitted reviews I reserve even greater thanks! There is nothing more important to me than critical feedback. I am not a writer by trade, in fact I have never received any formal training in the art whatsoever. In undergraduate I studied Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science. Therefore, well worded critical feedback is worth more to me than you can possibly imagine! Basically, I am eager to learn that which I have missed and if you think that there is more to be taught than can be captured in a simple review, go ahead and send me a Private Message. Once again, thanks for reading everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

Nick went through his normal routine that day, everything going the same as usual until he got to the part of the day where he would normally do the cleaning and the laundry. This was usually after he had dropped all the kits off at either school, pre-school or some form of activity. But today he had Finnick at the apartment doing those things while he drove down to the decrepit warehouse by the water to begin his first day of training.

Most of it was fairly standard stuff, running, weight lifting etc. Then things started to get a little bit more interesting. Ming taught him how to use smoke bombs and Kiku demonstrated a technique to punch through cinderblocks, which looked rather painful to him. Mabel tried to show Nick how to use the budget radio system that she had installed in the mask and Mike had him practice his 'monologue.'

"I _The Scarlet Rogue_ am here to bring Justice to-" The moose cut him off.

"No, no. With more passion Nick! You need to make the people believe that you really are a hero." Nick rolled his eyes as he looked away from the script.

"What's the point of this? Aren't you guys going to be modifying my voice _anyway_ when we do the whole announcement thing?"

"Well yes, but it doesn't matter how much we modify your voice if you can't deliver the lines with a bit of emotion. We are trying to create a myth here, not a used car salesman. Once again, from the top." Nick let a small chuckle go and got back to it.

Nick felt bushed after practicing for his new job that afternoon. Soon enough though, it was time to get going and pick up the kits. Before he left he checked in with Mike to see when he should come back tomorrow.

"So, same time tomorrow?" Mike gave Nick a serious look before he responded.

"We've got a problem."

"Oh?"

"They are going to start demolishing one of the buildings tomorrow. We thought that we would have more time to get you back in shape but it seems that Santiago has other plans. We need you to go out tonight and pay this demolition site a visit."

"You're crazy. I literally just started today and you're telling me that I have to find a way to break into a demolition site in less than twelve hours."

"Yes, it is crazy. But that's why we made you our leader. Don't worry, you'll figure something out. Now, you better get going or else you will be late to pick up Jessica and Nicole from school."

Nick walked off, not entirely sure how he was going to find a way to break into a construction site between now and later tonight. At the moment he was more focused on picking up his kits. Swinging by the school he picked up Jessica and Nicole and then he went to get Marcus. As usual he now had to take them to their after school activities, which for these three there were only two. Jessica and Nicole went to their ballet class and Marcus to swimming lessons. Nick sat patiently outside the ballet studio while working on his laptop. He had a map of the area pulled up and an article regarding the demolition of the building in question. He read through the article carefully, pausing when he saw that the building was to be demolished using explosives. A flash of inspiration washed over him and he began to type an email to Ming to have something special ready for him when he came back to the warehouse that night. Nick flipped back to the map of the area though and noted the position of the jam cams that seemed to exist at every major intersection. As far as he could tell, it seemed that there was no way to exit the area without being spotted on one of them and tracked all the way back to warehouse. Losing focus, he decided that he would check out Finnick's new website for his auto body shop. Looking through some of the images he noticed that Finnick seemed to specialize in making dull white vans into gaudy flame covered monstrosities. He pondered the images for a moment, an idea springing to mind. He pulled out his phone and gave Finnick a call.

"Hey Finnick."

"Nick! Do you have any idea how many clothes you and your family seem to go through!? I've been stuck doing laundry for the last two hours' man!"

"Hey, being a stay at home dad is tough. If it was easy I wouldn't have asked for your help."

"Yeah, yeah. Alright what do you need?"

"We're going out tonight it seems."

"What? But we haven't had any time to really practice!"

"That's what I said. Anyway, I have a plan. So, that auto body shop that you own. Tell me, how fast do you think that you could paint a van?"

"If I really rushed it, probably a day."

"You are going to have to do this in eight hours. Don't worry though it's nothing too complicated, sending you the picture now." Nick had a picture of one of the City's vans opened up that had on the side _Zootopia Department of Water & Sewage_. He smiled to himself, maybe their trust in him wasn't totally misguided after all.

Nick returned to the apartment and got ready to start dinner. He found that his usual grace and agility though were somewhat lacking as he put together a casserole, the weight of what he was going to do that night making focus a difficult thing to maintain. Judy arrived home shortly after, looking a little more beat than usual.

"Something wrong carrots?"

"No… Yes… I really don't want to talk about work right now."

Nick tried his best to relax as she laid her arms around him and gave him a big hug. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but decided not to say anything. If she wanted her home to be stress free than that's what he would work to make happen. Nick gave her a little smile and motioned to the dinner he had prepared.

"Broccoli casserole with Brussel sprouts my dear?" Immediately, high pitched yelps and cries filled the air of the apartment.

"Brussel sprouts!? Dad!"

Judy gave Nick a thankful smile and laughed a little at the protests of the kits as they came sullenly to the table to eat with their parents. As usual they talked about the day's activities, Jessica being very excited that her teacher had given her a complement on her pirouette. After eating their fill, and Nick and Judy eating most of the Brussel sprouts, they went over to the TV and sat down to watch a movie. Judy leaned into Nick as the kids sat on the floor to watch the movie. When the prince went to the princess to give her a kiss at the climax of the film Judy leaned in to give Nick one too. Three pairs of ears turned around as the sound of their kiss caught the kits attention. Jessica was the first to make a note of it.

"Ew… Mommy and Daddy are kissing!" Nick and Judy laughed a little as they leaned into each other. Judy decided to tease them a little about it.

"Oh no Nick, they caught us!" Jessica and Nicole looked at each other before they burst out into song.

"Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Marcus in a baby carriage." Nick reached down his paws and tasseled the girls fur.

"That's right! Now, seeing that the movie is over guess what that means." Collectively the kits let out a long groan, with Marcus being the first to make a plead.

"Aw… Five more minutes? There are still the previews to watch." Nick looked at Judy, figuring that he would let her play the good cop.

"Hmm… I think that's okay!" The kits cheered as they went back to the menu while Nick feigned shock.

"It's past their bedtime."

"Five minutes won't hurt."

Finishing up the last of the previews Nick and Judy put the kits to bed before turning in themselves. Nick got into bed first, with Judy laying down next to him. After she turned off her lamp she nuzzled up next to him and held him tightly. Nick tried to relax as best he could, trying to convince himself that tonight was like any other night at home. To convince himself that he wasn't about to get up in an hour and steal off into the night to do something that he had promised Judy only yesterday he wouldn't. Apparently, his self-deception worked well enough to fool Judy, as less than a minute later he could hear her quiet snores. Quiet being a relative term. It sounded like a rusty chainsaw, albeit freshly oiled.

Nick raised her arms off of him and carefully disentangled himself from the bed. He took the displaced covers and tucked them back in around Judy, giving her a light kiss on her head before he left. Quietly getting dressed, he silently opened the door and stole one last look at his sleeping princess before he headed out.

Nick walked down the stairs of the apartment building and stood out front. Waiting for him was a white van that bore a remarkable likeness to those of the Zootopia Department of Water & Sewage. The window of the van rolled down and Finnick motioned for him to get in. Nick got over to the passenger side and hopped into the van. Sitting in back were Mike and Ming, dressed in construction outfits. Finnick broke the silence as they drove to the location that Nick had told him about in an email.

"I have to say Nick, I'm impressed. You've had some pretty crazy ideas before, but this one really takes the cake." Nick gave a bemused smile.

"Thanks."

"I mean it Nick. Dressing up as sewer workers so that we can use the storm drains to get into the construction site? It's crazy man!" The moose laid a hoof on Nick's shoulder.

"I knew we picked the right fox for the job! By the way, we got the black tool bags that you asked for." Nick nodded in affirmation.

"Great! Looks like we have everything that we need. Everyone knows their parts?" They all nodded in the affirmative.

"Good, then let's get this hustle going."

They pulled up to a street corner, parking just in front of a manhole that was near the side of the street. Waiting until a squad car had passed, Ming and Mike got out in their inspector outfits and removed the manhole cover and then placed the appropriate safety cones around it. Next, Nick and Finnick dawned their costumes, Nick noticing for the first time that Finnick was going to be coming along.

"Wait… Are you going to be my side-kick?" Finnick flashed him an angry look.

"I am _The Tawny Bandit_ ; I am _not_ your side-kick!" Nick smiled a little before making his comment.

"Right, got it, the tiny bandit." Finnick grabbed Nick's collar and dragged him down so that he was looking at him face to face.

"Tawny. Bandit. Got it?" Nick simply nodded and Finnick let him go.

They then got into the large tool bags that the others had left in the back and sealed themselves up inside of them. The bags were then picked up by Mike who tied them to a rope and lowered them down into the sewer, where Ming was waiting at the bottom to let them out. The smell was overpowering, but there wasn't much that could be done about it. Next, Mike lowered a burlap sack down to the three waiting below. Nick opened it just to make sure that Ming had gotten everything right. Taking out one what appeared to be a stick of dynamite, he inspected the writing and the color. Ming looked on the little stick of explosives with pride.

"Looks almost like the real thing huh?"

"How much damage will it do?"

"To a building? Almost none! I still wouldn't recommend standing anywhere close to it though. It might be a giant firecracker, but it's still dangerous. I also included the smoke bombs that you asked for. I only had time to make a few of them, so use them wisely." Nick nodded.

"Got it. Okay, wait here until we get back. We'll make sure that tomorrows demolition doesn't go as planned."

With that, Nick and Finnick finished dawning their masks and started heading down the sewer towards the demolition site. Counting off the number of grates, Nick eventually found the one that he was looking for. Climbing up the ladder Nick tried to push the heavy grate out of the way so that he could get out onto the street above. Finnick climbed up between Nick and the ladder and brushed his paws aside. Nick put his paws back on the ladder and gave Finnick a questioning look. Finnick ignored him and with a grunt and a twist pushed the grate out of the way, sliding it to the side just as easily as could be. Nick's jaw seemed to have forgotten how to work as he looked on in amazement.

Climbing out after Finnick, Nick cautiously looked around to see if there was anyone around. As far as he could tell the entire demolition site was empty, not another soul in sight. Next, he looked for the real target of this little operation. The truck carrying the explosives that were to be used tomorrow. He didn't have to go very far to find the bright orange pickup-truck that was plastered with warning stickers. Grabbing his lock picking set he started to pick the lock on the steel box that contained the explosives in the truck bed. Popping the lock, he passed the bag of fake explosives to Finnick, removing the real dynamite and putting it to the side. Nick started to put the fake dynamite into the box but noticed something he hadn't expected when he looked up. The foreman's trailer. Nick set down the fake dynamite that he had in his paws and looked to Finnick.

"Make sure that everything looks exactly the same. I have an idea."

"Hey! Stick to the plan!" It was no good though, Nick had already gone off towards the trailer.

Nick approached the trailer cautiously, looking for any signs of alarms or sensors that would give him away. Looking at the stairs to the front door he saw a camera and a keycard reader. Looking at the windows he saw that they too had little sensors attached to them. Figuring that the most obvious means of entry were probably all covered he decided that the next best method was to go with _the least_ obvious means of entry. Crouching down he headed towards one of the grates that rimmed the bottom of the trailer. Carefully removing one these he crawled his way underneath the trailer. Taking a flashlight out of his pocket he looked around for some sort of maintenance hatch. Spotting one he carefully began to undo the bolts holding it in place.

"Bingo."

He lifted the hatch, which was metal on the bottom and carpet on the top, up and set on the floor inside of the trailer. After climbing into the trailer he put the grate back in its position. Scanning the trailer, he found exactly what he had been looking for, computers and folders. Flipping through a few of the folders on the desks he searched for anything that could be useful in showing what was really afoot. Not finding anything he looked at the computers, a few of which were still on. Taping the keyboard, he was greeted with the login screen.

"Great. Maybe they left a password somewhere." Opening the top drawer and looking at the bottom he found a post-it with a username and a password written on it.

"Thank goodness for terrible memories."

Nick typed the password and username into the login screen and was led to the desktop. Opening up an internet browser and typing in a few generic email providers, he crossed his claws and hoped that this mammal was as bad at security as he thought. Sure enough, the browser automatically filled in the blanks and he was able to login.

"Yes!"

Nick read through a few of the emails experimentally. Most of them seemed to be of little use, until he found one that made him give out a bit of a victory hoot.

 _Hey Boss,_

 _We're having a bit of trouble with wolves over on the third block. Any chance we can have a city inspector show up tomorrow?_

 _Response:_

 _Yeah sure, I'll just ask the higher-ups to get one of their lackeys at city hall to get one sent out. Don't worry, the property will be condemned in twenty-four hours._

 _Response:_

 _Ha, great! I love how fast the government works for us!_

Nick moved to download the file, but he didn't know what he could download it too. Taking out his phone he grabbed a nearby cable and started downloading the email to the phone. Figuring that more information would be better he selected all the emails that he could and started loading them onto his phone. Job done, Nick grabbed the phone and headed for the door. Upon opening it though he immediately regretted it as the burglar alarm went off.

"Crackers!"

Nick looked down the block just in time to see that two officers, who had been standing by their squad car, were now looking right at him. It seemed like now was probably the time to go. Running over to the truck that Finnick was standing in he got an annoyed whisper.

"What did you do man!?"

"I went out the door. Did you get all the dynamite?"

"Yeah, of course! Not going to do us much good when the cops get here tho-" Nick grabbed Finnick and started running towards the storm sewer on the opposite side of the street from where the cops were.

"Grab the smoke bombs!" Finnick dug through the bag as Nick sprinted towards the sewer. Nick looked behind him, the officers were gaining on him and he could see the red and blue lights from the squad cars that were heading down the street towards them.

"Set them off!" Finnick took out a lighter and gave a deep laugh as he lit the fuses on the smoke bombs, tossing a few in front of them and a few behind them as he hung under Nick's arm.

A series of loud pops surrounded Nick as the air filled with dense smoke. From behind him he could hear the cops shouting at him to freeze. Holding the bag in his teeth, he headed down the ladder with Finnick standing on his shoulders. Carefully, Finnick moved the grate back into position and let it down with a muted thud. Nick then started down the ladder as he heard more cars arrive on the scene and the other officers start to search the area. Moving as quietly as he could, he and Finnick headed back down the sewer towards the parked van. Ming was standing there waiting, looking a little bit nervous.

"What happened?" Finnick took off his orange mask and hissed at Nick.

"This fool thought that it would be a great idea to drift from the plan!"

"In my defense, I found evidence that Santiago has his paws deep in city hall." Finnick still looked mad.

"Yeah, well next time don't do something like that without asking okay? We nearly got caught back there!" Nick sighed a little.

"Yeah, well we didn't and that's that. Come on, let's get back in the bags." Nick and Finnick got back into the tool bags and waited for the others to drag them back out of the sewer.

Nick could hear the sirens of the squad cars rushing past their van as they were pulled up out of the sewer. After hearing the doors close, Nick started to unzip his bag from the inside. Stretching out, he moved to remove his mask but was interrupted by Mike.

"Wait! We need to get your announcement!"

"Announcement?"

"The announcement of The Scarlet Rogue! We have to make sure that there is a video to accompany this brazen act of resistance." Nick looked at the moose, not sure whether or not to take him seriously.

"Here? In the back of a van? Can't we do this at the warehouse?"

"You said yourself that we couldn't move the van after the job without making it look really suspicious. So why not use the time we have to wait anyway to get some filming done?" Nick decided that the moose had a decent point.

"Yeah, alright, pass me the script." Mike excitedly passed him the script and got out the camera as Finnick sat in the corner looking disappointed. Mike glanced over towards him.

"Hey, the Tawny Bandit has lines too you know." Finnick's ears picked up.

"Really!? I mean, oh. Yeah sure." Finnick moved over next to Nick and picked up his own set of lines. It was a little while before they were ready to record but eventually they felt confident to give it a go. Mike gave them a count down and then pointed to Nick to start his lines.

"I, am the scarlet rogue!" Mike pointed towards Finnick to cue his line.

"I am the tawny bandit!"

"We have struck at the heart of Santiago's demolition plans, and have gathered information proving that he has paws all over the city council."

"Tonight is merely the first night in our fight against Santiago and his plans to demolish the Canidae neighborhood."

"We'll continue to fight to expose Santiago for who he is, and to protect the Canidae neighborhood. We're the tragic pack, and we're here to stay!" Mike clicked his hoof to signal he was done recording.

"Not bad guys, but we're going to need a few more takes before we can call it good." Nick grabbed his phone to check the time.

"Whoa, it's two o'clock in the morning! Sorry but I got to go or else I won't get any sleep before I have to make breakfast." The others gave him an annoyed look. Finnick just rolled his eyes and spoke to the others.

"The fox loves what he does. Cut him some slack. Besides, he did just help us with our first job, even though he screwed up part of it." Remembering the emails Nick took out his phone.

"Hey, I collected some emails off of the computers in the trailer. Some of them look pretty incriminating." Mike nodded at Nick.

"Sure, put them on my laptop as we take you home. I'll have Mabel edit the video so that we can have it up before the morning news. With a little luck, you two will be the talk of Zootopia in a few hours."

They dropped Nick off at his apartment building, taking the costume back with them as they headed towards the warehouse. Heading up the stairs and quietly unlocking the door he let himself in. He took a quick shower, changed clothes and snuck back into the bedroom, Judy still snoring like a champ. Carefully, he lowered himself into the bed and got back under the sheets and snuggled up back next to Judy. After almost being caught by the cops and risking so much to help out his old neighborhood, he finally felt safe. As he relaxed and began to drift off towards sleep, his alarm went off. Glaring at the alarm clock he hit it to make it stop beeping. Judy turned over next to him.

"Morning sweetie."

"Right… Morning…" Nick rolled out of bed and got ready to start his morning routine.

Edited by B.B. Conrad

 **Cover Art 'Competition' Announcement: (For those that are interested)**

 **Since this story is gaining a bit of traction (I half expected it to crash and burn if I'm honest) I think it is time to start looking for cover art. Specifically, if any of you out there are so inclined I was thinking of some sort of portrait of The Scarlet Rogue himself. However, I am hardly an artist so I am willing to listen to any and all suggestions. If a few of you send me art of good quality (subjective I know) I will try and alternate your art as the cover art for this story as well as cite you in the description. If there ends up being a sufficiently large number of submissions I will hold some sort of poll to rank them and determine order. PM me if you want to submit art so that I can share with you my email.**


	6. Chapter 6

Judy watched Nick get out of bed, noting he seemed a bit tired this morning. She never asked Nick to wake up early to make breakfast, it was just something he did. Even so, she didn't want to see him forcing himself to do something if he was getting sick. Judy pushed herself to wake up, she wasn't about to let Nick work himself to death just to make her oatmeal. Getting out of bed, she went to the kitchen were Nick was starting breakfast. He didn't seem to notice as she walked up behind him.

"Hey." Nick jumped a little, he hadn't heard her apparently.

"What are you doing up so early?"

"You look tired, I figured you could use some rest. Let me make breakfast this morning." Nick gave her a surprised look.

"Judy, you haven't made breakfast in over a year." Judy looked a little miffed.

"So? That doesn't mean I don't remember how to cook." Nick took Judy's paw and smiled gently at her.

"Carrots, last time you attempted to make oatmeal you tried to use _eggs_."

"I forgot okay?" Figuring she wasn't going to let this go Nick figured that it would be better to compromise.

"Alright, tell you what. Why don't you cook while I assist?" Judy seemed to accept this offer as she opened the fridge and started to pick out ingredients.

After a bit of arguing about the merit of cloves in oatmeal Nick had more or less coaxed Judy into making a decent bowl. That out of the way, Judy set the table as Nick went and got the kits out of bed. Something still didn't feel right to her though. Nick didn't just look tired, something about the way he was acting made it seem like something was bothering him. Sitting down at the table, Judy opened up a tablet and started flipping through the morning news feeds. She paused when she saw that a protest had been organized against the demolition of one of the buildings in Canidae.

"Ah good, they're learning."

She looked up at Nick as he came back with Marcus and the girls, a theory brewing in her mind as to what was bothering him. As he sat down she reached out and grabbed his paw, passing him the tablet.

"I knew something was bothering you. It's okay, I understand that it's hard. If I could do something to change it, I would." The kits didn't seem to notice as they reached to serve themselves some of the hot steaming oatmeal.

"It's alright sweetie. Besides, I have an idea about how to turn this from lemons to lemonade."

"Huh?" Turning to the kits Nick showed them the article.

"Who wants to see a building get blown up today?" All of them agreed with gusto, Judy gave Nick a concerned look.

"Nick, maybe you shouldn't. It seems that this whole thing is leaving you pretty beat up as is."

"Well Carrots, sometimes you just got to learn to let go, and sometimes the best way to do that is with explosions." Judy gave a meek smile. She wasn't sure if Nick really meant it or if he was just putting on a brave face.

Judy walked into the ZPD and immediately noticed the deafening silence which greeted her. She could hear that everyone was listening to some sort of video, while others talked in hushed voices as they stared at various devices. Getting to her office she logged into her computer and saw an email had been sent to her from Bogo. It was simply titled 'Important.' Clicking on the link in the email she was redirected to a video sight and the image of an individual in all black with a stylized red wolf mask. Judy watched the video, her eyes fixed on the image of _the scarlet rogue_. The voice in the video was clearly altered, a synthetic combination of highs and lows which worked to obscure their voice. She didn't like this; she didn't like this at all. Chief Bogo walked into her office, not looking up as he tapped away at his tablet.

"Wilde, we've got a situation in case you can't tell."

"Yeah, I got that. What do we know about them?"

"Other than they are members of the 'Tragic Pack' and they seem to be threatening Santiago Ramirez and his company? Nothing."

"Great. So what exactly did they do last night?"

"Broke into the trailer of the demolition foreman at one of the buildings that they were planning to tear down." Bogo passed her his tablet before he continued. "As far as we can tell, it seems that all these clowns did was break in and then steal a bunch of emails. They've already published them online, and a lot of them have some pretty strong evidence that Santiago is manipulating city hall."

"Great!"

"Not great Wilde. This evidence isn't admissible in court because it is stolen. Besides, even if it had been obtained legally it still wouldn't be able to prove anything."

"What? It shows that he is manipulating the institutions of Zootopia, is there really nothing illegal there?"

"There's no law saying that city inspectors have to inspect buildings chronologically based on when they are requested to do so. So in a word, no. Besides, we have bigger problems now. This evidence is drawing a fair amount of support for this 'tragic pack' and it will probably serve only to make the protesters bolder."

"Right. I guess that's what they were going for. So let me guess, you want me to go to the building that they are planning to demolish and make sure that the protesters don't get out of hand huh?"

"Yup. I have given you every officer that I can spare and some of our most elite units. You have all resources at your disposal Wilde, make use of them. Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Start them off in riot gear this time." Bogo left the office, apparently he had places to be and people to see as usual. Judy put on her headset and got ready to organize another day of riot control.

Judy's task force had arrived at the site a few hours later and got set up before the protesters arrived. With a bit of intimidation and careful organization the protesters were being held at bay. Then again, Judy couldn't help but suspect that they had become more organized than last time. What was a little more concerning though was that there seemed to be more of them. Apparently, the evidence that the Tragic Pack had presented was beginning to sway more citizens to the side of mammals of the Canidae neighborhood. The time for the demolition was nearing though and Judy could tell that the workers had placed most of the explosives into the old apartment building. At this point, it seemed that everything was ready to go. As the time drew near she heard over the radio that a massive silver car was asking to get through.

"Assistant Superintendent Wilde, Santiago Ramirez is requesting permission to visit the site over." Judy groaned a little bit at this.

"Roger. Let him through over."

"Roger. He wants to speak with you over." She took a deep breath and stepped out of the command truck.

Being led through the protesters by the officers was Santiago's car, gliding silently through the protesters. A metal cocoon, shielding him from the insults that were being hurled towards him. Judy waited for the car to roll up to her, trying to compose herself by taking deep breaths. The car came to a graceful stop next to her and the driver got out to open up the door for Santiago. Stepping out and straightening his suit he cast a casual glance to Judy.

"Mrs. Wilde, what a pleasure it is to see you keeping the order."

"High praise I'm sure. Why are you here by the way? You're making my job harder coming here." Santiago gave a mirthless chuckle.

"Ah my dear, I am about to make it even harder in just a few minutes." Judy tried to catch his meaning but lost focus when she saw a certain fox in the crowd.

Standing as close to the police barricades as he could with the three kits was Nick. The girls walking along next to him and Marcus sitting on his shoulders. Judy quickly dashed over to him and the kits.

"Nick, what are you doing here?"

"Well, they didn't have anything to do this afternoon so instead of letting them watch TV I figured that we could watch a building blow up. Isn't that right kits?" Their excitement seemed barely contained.

"Yeah! This is going to be so cool!" Judy gave a halfhearted smile and then looked back at Nick.

"Nick I'm serious. This whole situation was really bugging you yesterday, I really don't think you should watch this."

"Well, doesn't really matter at this point. I promised these little guys that they could watch it so I have to stay anyway." Judy looked at the kits who were obviously extremely excited about the spectacle.

"Alright, just… Just let me know if you need anything alright?"

"Alright Carrots, I will let you know if my heart suddenly breaks into a million tiny pieces. Oh hey, it looks like the puma in the white suit is about to make an announcement."

Santiago had moved to the top of one of the trucks that were at the demolition site and had a bullhorn in paw. He raised it up and announced his presence to the protesters arrayed before him.

"Citizens of the Canidae neighborhood! I am Santiago Ramirez, and I am here today to remove a blemish from the face of our fair city. For too long your neighborhood has stood as impediment to progress. No more! Today, we begin a new chapter in the history of Zootopia. A history, without you! When I press this button the detonations will start and this building, the first of many, will fall! Foreman, if you please!"

A deer in a hard hat passed the puma a small detonator that was presumably hooked up to the explosives in the small apartment building somehow. Santiago motioned for the foreman to begin the countdown. Santiago returned to the bullhorn to announce the countdown.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven," the protesters were now booing, threatening to drown out the sound of his voice. He responded by turning up the volume.

"Ahem! Six, five, four, three, two" Judy turned to look at Nick, but his face was not one of anguish or nervousness. He was placid, completely calm. She couldn't understand it.

"One!" Santiago pushed the little red button that he was holding.

At first, it seemed that nothing had happened. Santiago seemed to examine the device in his paws and experimentally tried pressing the button a few more times. Then, sporadically at first, then growing in both tempo and volume firecrackers could be heard going off. Roman candles and other fireworks began to shoot out of the old building as sparklers began to ignite in other areas of the structure. Santiago stared off disbelieving at what he was apparently bearing witness to. Nick let out a single laugh.

"Ha! I hope you kept the receipt for that dynamite!" Soon enough the entire crowd was laughing. Marcus sat on Nick's head still looking confused.

"I don't think that's what's supposed to happen." Nicole chimed in next.

"No, usually the building falls down I think." Jessica agreed.

"Yeah, that's what happens in all the videos at least."

Judy found herself laughing a little too. Santiago though looked enraged. He stalked down from the top of the truck amid the jeers from the crowd, heading straight towards Judy. She walked towards him, trying to make sure that he didn't get too close to the protesters who might do him harm. As she came within ear shot he shouted at her.

"We've got a big problem Mrs. Wilde!" Judy was still trying to keep herself from laughing at this point.

"Seems to me that it's yours, not mine." The puma shook his head.

"No. Obviously, something happened to that dynamite my dear. Something that I am sure you can figure out if you think about it for a mere second."

"The Scarlet Rogue." She said, the realization hitting hard.

"Exactly my dear. That terrorist has enough dynamite in his paws now to blow up a building. Based on his threats it would seem prudent to me that you set about finding him and that dynamite before someone gets hurt." Santiago stalked off towards his parked car, where his driver was waiting patiently. "Crowley! Let's go."

Judy felt her breath quickening as she got on the radio to inform Bogo of the situation. Santiago was right after all, a terrorist with a quantity of high explosives was more than a bit of an issue. She took one last look at Nick, but it seemed that he was already leaving with the kits to go back home for dinner.

"Chief Bogo, we have a situation, over." Waiting for his reply, she mused quietly to herself. "Looks, like I'm not going to make it home for dinner tonight."


	7. Chapter 7

As Nick looked out the window at the rising sun, he thought about the events of the previous night. Judy had called Nick to tell him she would be organizing an anti-terrorist task force that night, and thus be unable to get home in time for dinner. Sure enough, she had come home long after the kits were in bed and crashed on the couch so as not to bother Nick.

Nick tried not to feel too bad about it, but he knew that he was the reason why she wasn't able to come home last night. It was his fault that she wasn't able to enjoy her favorite part of her day and he felt awful about it. Still, he had a job to do and he was going to see it through to the end. His guilt though caused him to make sure that when she did get home, that he had some hot cocoa and pudding ready for her.

He had woken up the next morning to start his morning routine as Judy slept like a rock. He made breakfast, woke the kids and went over to the couch. She slept there, snoring with a sound similar to a misfiring diesel engine. Loud, low and oddly calming. He didn't want to wake her up, to make her go to work today to lead an investigation that he knew he had to try and thwart. Unfortunately, the only thing worse than a tired Judy Wilde was a late one so he sat on the arm of the couch and shook her shoulder.

"Hey carrots. It's time to get up." He gave her a little smile as she opened one lazy eye to look at him.

"Ugh… Five more minutes…"

"Come on Judy, I know that you will be furious if I let you sleep in."

"But I don't want to get up."

"Why is that?"

"Because I don't want to have to think about what I am doing today." Nick could tell that she hadn't slept well. That something was deeply bothering her.

"What's so bad about what you have to do?"

"I have to chase down a terrorist who has broken more than a few laws in order to protect the rights of a puma who hasn't broken any."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Sounds pretty straightforward."

"Yeah right. I am basically helping a puma to destroy a neighborhood Nick. Your old neighborhood. I hate this." Judy turned back over to one side and curled tightly into the back of the couch. Nick looked at the floor for a second collecting his thoughts before he responded.

"Well carrots, it seems to me that you are in a bit of a tough spot. Though I think I might have a solution!"

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?"

"Give up on trying to make Zootopia a better place and become a carrot farmer!" Judy laughed a little at this and smacked Nick with a cushion that she had been resting her head on.

"Ha! Alright, you've convinced me. I'll give it my best shot." Nick leaned in to give her a hug.

"That's my Judy. Never stop trying."

"I won't. So! What's for breakfast?"

"Glad you asked! I made burritos this morning!"

They went and ate breakfast and the morning started off as usual. Judy left for work and he took the kits to school. The new part of his morning routine though followed next. Driving his van to the hidden lot by the abandoned warehouse he stepped out with a bag of dirty laundry in one paw and his laptop bag in the other. Stepping inside he passed the bag of laundry to Finnick as well as a grocery list of food items that he would need for the apartment. The others greeted him politely as he walked past the various stations and headed to his desk and arrayed blackboards. Plastered across the blackboards were maps of Zootopia's roads, sewers, train lines and electrical substations. He set down his laptop and took a long hard look at the boards, trying to piece together where the scarlet rogue should strike next. Mike meandered over to Nick with a tablet in hoof.

"Well Rogue, it seems that your little stunt has generated more than a little support for us around the city." Nick didn't turn around to address the moose.

"Really? Am I to assume we now have several Furbook pages devoted to us and a few really thoughtful comments?"

"Well yes. But we also seemed to have drawn enough attention to put pressure on Lionheart."

"Really?" Nick turned around and looked at the tablet that the moose was holding. On it he had a video that was paused showing Lionheart standing at a podium.

"I assure you. We here at the city council are doing everything in our power to investigate these allegations of corruption." One reporter asked a particularly loud question in response.

"And what about the destruction of the Canidae neighborhood?" Lionheart seemed to look a little nervous.

"We're doing everything in our power to persuade the developers to reconsider."

"So nothing? You really expect us to believe that you are going to turn around on your biggest campaign contributor so quickly?"

"Uh… No more questions!" Nick stopped the video.

"Well, he's not going to be much help," Mike adjusted his glasses perplexed.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at his body language. He's nervous and he doesn't know what to do. If you ask me, it seems that he is worried about standing up to Santiago. Tell me Mike, do you know what the secret is to a good hustle?" Mike shook his antlers.

"Not really. Just figured it had to do with being cleverer than the mark." Nick gave a small chuckle.

"No! The trick to a good hustle is _knowing_ the mark. It helps if you're smarter, but you don't have to be if you know who and _what_ they are."

"Alright then, so who's the mark then?" Nick looked Mike right in the eyes.

"Santiago. I need you guys to find out everything about him. Get me the most comprehensive biography that you can. I want to know his birthday, where he's from and what's his favorite color." Mike shrugged a little bit, deciding not to argue with the fox that he had decided to put in charge.

"Alright, I'll get Mabel right on it."

Nick looked back at the board as he tried to figure out what his next move should be. Nothing coming to him, he started to just walk around the shop. Boris started to walk towards him, wrench in hand. Nick adjusted his tie instinctively, the large bear making him nervous.

"Nick. What do I do?" Nick stood there for a moment in thought.

"Well… You work on cars right?"

"Da, have been working on big engine for fast car."

"Right, well maybe you better think of something else to work on. You see, Zootopia is covered with Jam Cams and a car really isn't going to work."

"Then what do I do?" Nick shrugged a little.

"Don't know. Tell you what, surprise me." The bear stalked away back towards the garage, his face expressionless.

Nick kept walking around till eventually he passed Mabel's desk. She was busily tapping away at her keyboard as a coffee maker happily burbled next to her. If she had noticed him she didn't make it apparent. It seemed that friendliness was just not part of her personality. Nick tried to look over her screen, which seemed to annoy her enough to warrant a response.

"No hovering."

"Sorry, I'm just looking for something to do until I get a bio on Santiago," Mable snorted.

"Don't know why, it's standard rich corporate stuff," she shifted in her chair to let Nick get a look at her screen, "acquisitions here, renovations here. There's the occasional interview where he makes some personal remarks. Overall though, it seems that his online history is more carefully tailored than one of his stupid suits."

"So you're telling me that there's nothing unusual about this cat huh?" Mabel shook her head.

"Actually, there _is_ something interesting about him."

"Oh?" Mabel switched to a search engine output and flipped around the options to show the oldest results first.

"The furthest back that I can find a record of him is thirty years ago. Here's a newspaper article from Bunny Borough back then." Nick looked over the scanned article. It said something about Santiago planning to tear down a trailer park and replace it with a golf course.

"Same old same old I guess." Mabel shook her head, a little more vigorously this time.

"No, you don't get it. _Everything_ is online. There's no way that this puma should just start existing thirty years ago. Something feels weird here."

"Well, can you figure out where he was born?"

"Sure. He said so in an interview." She pulled open a video of an interview that Santiago had had a few months prior.

"I was not born in Zootopia, but I did grow up here and I consider this place my home." Nick gave a look of surprise.

"Wait! He was raised in Zootopia and there's no record of him until he arrives in Bunny Borough? That's odd." Mabel nodded slowly in agreement.

"Yeah… I don't get it either… Hey, wait a second!"

Nick stood watching as Mabel took the photo from the Bunny Borough Times and digitally snipped out Santiago's picture. Putting it into some sort of photo editing software, she adjusted a variety of properties faster than Nick could follow. Having adjusted the photo, she saved it and then dragged it back to the search engine and clicked on reverse image search. A mere second later there he was, a young puma standing in a high school yearbook photo only with a different name under his portrait. Julio Sanchez. Mabel reached over to the coffee maker and poured herself a new cup. Sipping at the black coffee in her refilled mug she smiled to herself.

"Ha! Not bad if I do say so myself. Like I said Nick, _everything_ is online," Nick just looked on, trying to get the words out of his mouth.

"Yeah. I see that," an idea seemed to formulate in Nick's mind, "before we go public with this, we should find some stronger evidence."

"Like what? The certificate that he legally changed his name? That's probably stored in his safety deposit box, so good luck getting that."

"Any other places where we could look to find proof that he changed his name?"

"Sure, the county clerk's office. But that would require getting access to their database. To get into there I would need a terminal on the inside…" Mabel looked at Nick who was now grinning from ear to ear. "Alright Scarlet Rogue, but before you go running off to break into the County Clerk's office I am going to write some new applications for your phone so that I can tag along." Nick nodded to her, understanding that it would take a bit of time to write the necessary applications.

"Understood. We're also going to need to announce that we're doing something that night."

Nick started to walk back to the maps spread out over on his side of the warehouse. A few of the others had apparently overheard what he was on about and had now came over to investigate. Mable however was still more than a little confused.

"Why would we do that? Isn't it better to keep this all secret?" Nick gave her a knowing look.

"Yeah, but in this case I happen to know exactly how Judy is going to respond. If we tell her that we're going to make a move tomorrow, then she will put as many cops as possible in the Canidae neighborhood. Which," Nick went and pointed to the Canidae neighborhood on the map before dragging his paw towards the County Clerk's office, "is on the opposite side of town from the Clerk's Office." All of the rest started to nod in agreement to what he was planning. Hearing their murmurs behind him he took the time to take out his notebook and add another tally mark. Finnick walked over to Nick and threw his now clean laundry to him. He seemed a little upset at the scheduling of their next move.

"Tomorrow? We're supposed to go bowling man!"

"I know, and I am counting on Judy knowing that too." Finnick rolled his eyes.

"Great, but what are you supposed to do about your kits, huh mr. _responsible father_? If Judy is on call cause we're planning an attack, then she won't be home to watch the kits. Who're you going to get as a sitter?" Nick glanced up at Mabel. Meeting his eyes, she gave a deadly frown.

"I have someone in mind."


	8. Chapter 8

Judy looked out her office window at the protesters who had been there since yesterday. Many of them were holding banners either mocking the police or claiming that they too were somehow in Santiago's pocket. It made her angry. Angry at the very notion that she would have accepted working for someone like Santiago. Looking through the crowd she also saw various protesters dressed as the Scarlet Rogue or the Tawny Bandit. There wasn't much that she could do about it though at this point. Bogo had told her that they were going to let the citizens protest if they so choose, provided that their actions were non-violent. Apparently, Mayor Lionheart was beginning to feel the pressure and had made the decision that it was better to let the citizens vent their frustrations than to reinforce the accusations of the tragic pack.

That video the terrorists had released yesterday was still playing through her mind. Their threat to expose Santiago and ruin him appeared to confirm the puma's suspicions from the days prior. Whoever these terrorists were, it seemed that tonight that they were planning something far larger than before, and that was cause for concern. Interrupting her thoughts, her phone started to ring, a picture of Nick greeting her as she reached to answer it.

"Hi Nick, what is it?"

"Just wanted to let you know that Finnick and I are still planning on going bowling tonight."

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that. Wait, what about the kits? Did you get a sitter?"

"Of course! Don't worry about it, I knew that you were going to be busy tonight so I planned ahead of time."

"Oh. So you've heard about the planned attack."

"Kind of hard not to if I'm honest. It's been on the news non-stop. Don't worry sweetie, I know you'll catch them."

"Thanks Nick. Who knows, maybe they'll reconsider and turn themselves in."

"Ha! I don't think that's likely Carrots."

"You're probably right. Anyway, tell Finnick that I said hi and make sure that you stay away from the Canidae neighborhood tonight."

"Will do, love you honey."

Judy set down her phone and got back to her desk to organize the night's taskforces. There were going to be over one hundred cops in the area tonight and another hundred on reserve just in case things went south. She had mapped out all of the sewer lines in the neighborhood and had told several units to stand by in case the Scarlet Rogue made a break for one of them. No matter what happened, he wasn't going to be getting away this time. Bogo walked in a few minutes later, looking more than a little bit tired, which Judy commented on politely.

"Managing the protesters proving a bit taxing?" Bogo rubbed one eye ponderously.

"You can say that again Wilde. Thankfully, it seems that they are settling down a bit. Only had to make thirty arrests today."

"Hm. That's an improvement I suppose. I don't think that you came in here to tell me how many protesters that you have arrested though."

"Right you are Wilde. I have decided to give you command of the anti-terrorism taskforce. They just flew in last night and are at your disposal. All you have to do is give the word." Judy looked a little shocked at this. The anti-terrorism taskforce was the elite of the elite.

"Yes sir. Do you really think that I will be needing them?"

"I wouldn't be assigning them to you if I didn't." Bogo walked over to the window behind her and stared out of it, "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

"I know what you mean. I can't shake this feeling. This feeling that I am somehow the villain in all of this." Bogo laid a hoof on her shoulder.

"We're not Wilde. We're just doing our jobs. It's the eternal dilemma of law enforcement. We have to enforce laws that we have no say in."

"And apparently that the citizens of Zootopia didn't either."

"It's a crumby situation Wilde. We just have to make the best of it. Now, buck up! You've got a long night ahead of you and the city needs you at your best."

"Yes sir!"

Several hours later, Judy found herself sitting back in the command truck with a cup of coffee in one paw and the radio in the other. It had been quiet for the last few hours, there hadn't been anything suspicious whatsoever in the Canidae neighborhood and it felt like things were probably going to stay that way. Clawhauser remarked on the nature of the situation after a long yawn.

"It sure would have been nice if these guys had been a bit more specific with the time. You know, instead of just 'tomorrow night.'"

"Yeah, well it's not exactly in their best interests to tell us when they are planning on doing something illegal, now is it?"

"Never said it would be. Just said it would be nice."

The radio cracked to life next to her, Bogo on the other end seeming a bit panicked.

"Wilde! We have a situation, over!"

"What is it, over?"

"We guessed wrong. They weren't planning to attack Santiago's demolition sites in Canidae. We're getting reports of a break-in at the County Clerk's office!"

"What!?"

"County Clerk's office Wilde! County Clerk's office, over!" Judy paused for a moment as the surprise passed over her.

"Roger that! I am going to start having units converge on that location, over!"

Judy was all action now as she scrambled to reorganize the units that she had been readying all afternoon for an attack in the Canidae neighborhood. In less than twenty minutes she would have to take all that careful planning and throw it out the window. Now, she had to direct over one hundred units to various locations around the County Clerk's office. Looking at the map, she noted the location of the office.

"It just had to be on the other side of town didn't it?"


	9. Chapter 9

Nick had hoped that it would take a bit longer for them to set off an alarm, but there was no sense worrying about it now. Right now they had a job to do. Rushing down the stairs, the Scarlet Rogue and the Tawny Bandit headed straight for the server room. Reaching the door, Nick gave it an experimental shove.

"Locked!" Finnick reached into the bag that he had carried with him and took out a stick of dynamite. "Well, our cover's blown anyway."

Sticking the dynamite to the door with a bit of tape Nick and Finnick rushed back to the far end of the hall. Taking out his phone Nick flipped through a few screens and pressed one of the buttons that had appeared. An ear shattering boom came from the other end of the hall as the dynamite exploded and busted open the door. Finnick motioned for Nick to get going.

"Come on man, let's go!"

They ran past the smoke and dust from their little explosion and found themselves in front of the huge server racks of the Zootopia city government. On these servers were stored all of the city's official correspondence and many of the government records of its citizens. Nick took out his phone and looked for a port to plug it into. Finding one, he grabbed a cable from his bag and jammed one end of it into the server and the other into his phone. The screen went black before turning back on with a skull and crossbones emblazoned across it. Nick thought it was a bit silly.

"Huh. Cute."

After a few loading screens the words 'connection established' flashed across the screen and Mabel's voice could be heard. Not missing a beat Nick figured that he ought to check in on the Kits.

"The Kits asleep?"

"Yes Nick. Though that wasn't easy."

"Yeah, Nicole can be a bit rambunctious. Anyway, back to the task at hand."

"Right. Well it seems that their security is even worse than I thought. I am downloading as many emails as possible right now to our servers back at the base. I am also searching for Santiago's name change form."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Got it."

"Really that was –"

"Fast? Yeah, I'm the greatest. Anyway, the city's copy of the form is going to be in record room 15K. You are going to need to get into filing cabinet 7B and look for the file alphabetically."

"Great! Anything else?"

"Yeah, I have the camera's running on loops around the city. They won't notice right away but I don't know how long that will last. Get going Rogue, the cops on converging on your location."

Nick nodded to Finnick as he got going towards records. Unfortunately, it was back upstairs. Which meant running towards the police rather than away from them. Nick reached into the bag that Finnick had with him and took out a few smoke bombs. Nick gave Finnick a few instructions before he left.

"Bandit! Make sure that you place the charges exactly where I have them marked on the map okay?"

"Got it! You sure this is going to work?"

"No, but with enough high explosives the sky's the limit."

"You're funny."

Nick ran back up the stairs and looked for the record rooms. Consulting the map that he had printed out beforehand, he got his bearings and started racing towards the back of the building. Running down the halls and passing by the other different filing rooms, he came across room 15K. Smacking the door he realized that it was locked, and looking to the side of the doorframe that it would also need a keycard. He smacked his head against the door in frustration, a second later the keycard reader beeped and he heard the door's lock turn over.

"Thanks Mabel."

Nick got into the room and looked for the filing cabinet in question. This time, it was practically standing right in front of him at the head of a nearby aisle. Grabbing for one of the filing drawers he gave it a hard yank. Apparently, this one was locked too and it didn't look like it been upgraded to digital. Looking around, Nick tried to find something that would help him. On the other side of the room was a CO2 fire extinguisher.

"High school chemistry don't fail me now!"

Grabbing the extinguisher, he took it over to the cabinet and blasted the lock with the CO2 spray. Letting the tank run until it was empty, Nick then took it and hoped that he had made the metal brittle enough with the freezing CO2 that the lock would shatter. Smacking the fire extinguisher into the lock with all of his might, he sent the massive filing cabinet crashing to the ground, it's lock completely mangled and several of the drawers having flung open, their contents scattered about the floor. The 'S' drawer however, had remained closed. Ripping the drawer open, Nick flipped through the files, searching for the one marked Santiago Ramirez. He found it. Pulling it out he quickly inspected the piece of paper. It did indeed say 'Julio Sanchez' under original name. Nick tucked it in under his robes and allowed himself to relax for a second.

Outside in the hall though, he saw the dancing beams of flashlights as the footsteps of officers pounded towards his location. Nick grabbed several of the smoke bombs and lit them, hoping that he had gotten the timing right in this situation. Bursting through the door as the smoke bombs went off the officers were caught unaware. Nick rushed through them, skirting their legs as he rushed back down the hall through which he came. Other officers were in the hallway too, Tasers at the ready as he jumped and slid past them in a desperate bid to make it back to the basement. He could hear Judy's voice on the radio's that the officers were carrying, instructing them to try and surround him to prevent his escape.

Making it back to the stairway, he jumped to one side and slid down the banister to reach the bottom as quickly as possible, the rest of the task force not far behind. Grabbing a few more smoke bombs, he threw them down to the bottom of the stairs and ran past them as he got to the server room. Grabbing the phone, he ran through the server room to the pumping room on the other side where Finnick was waiting impatiently.

"Did you place the charges?"

"Yes I placed the charges! Where have you been?"

"Doesn't matter, we got to go."

"Well then press the button and let's blow this popsicle stand!" Nick looked back at his phone to check the time.

"Have to wait a minute."

"A minute for what!? For them to catch us!?"

They could hear the officers getting down the stairs. Thinking fast, Nick went over to the door leading out of the server room and locked it. He heard the first of the officers bash into it. Nick knew that it wasn't going to last long. Looking back at his phone he checked the time again. As the minute changed he shouted at Finnick to get down as he detonated the dynamite that he had placed in the floor. He called out to Finnick to follow him.

"Come on, let's go!"

Finnick followed behind Nick as he jumped down through the hole and onto a speeding subway car. Nick tumbled a little as he struggled to get a grip on the slick metal surface, grabbing Finnick as he slid past. Nick decided that now was a great time to make a quip.

"Say what you will about Lionheart. But at least he really does make the trains run on time."

"You could have told me that you were planning on catching a train earlier."

"And ruin the surprise? Not a chance! Now, let's get changed. Even if Mabel was able to make sure that the cameras don't catch us exiting the station, we still have to worry about being spotted by commuters."

Removing their disguises and shoving them into the bags that they had with them Nick and Finnick went back to their normal outfits. They then waited patiently as the train came to a stop at the next station. Nick carefully peeked over the edge of the car to try and see if anyone was leaving the train and was off the platform. Waiting until the train started to move again, Nick jumped off the last car and took Finnick with him, landing gracefully on the platform. Finnick cracked his back and gave Nick a mean stare.

"Couldn't we have just used the sewers again?"

"Ha! Judy is a lot of things, but she isn't dumb. I promise you that she had cops placed in every pipe before she even sent in officers into the building."

"You know; we probably wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for the fact that you happen to be married to her."

"Yeah well, I knew you guys needed the help. Come on, let's get back to the safe house so that I can get back home."

They left the station looking just as casual as could be. Nick hadn't made use of a lot of the skills that he had honed as a popsicle hustler, but one that he had definitely kept was the ability to look calm and collected no matter the situation. The two of them left the station and got into a van that was being driven by Mr. Ming and set out to drop off the proof that Santiago wasn't who he said he was.


	10. Chapter 10

Judy was tired, 'tired' being a relative term that is. The soul crushing exhaustion that had gripped her as the sun rose that morning made sitting down at her desk a contest between her desire to retreat to sleep, and desire to catch a master criminal who had now twice slipped through her grasp. She had been working late into last night, gathering evidence and trying to figure out just how the Scarlet Rogue had gotten away. She had a grudging respect for the masked man and his assistant though, having predicted exactly how the ZPD would respond to their threat against Santiago. The video, the emails and the certificate that they had released earlier this morning though only added to her problems. They had provided further evidence that Santiago's paws really were just as deep into city hall as the Tragic Pack had claimed. Then there was the fact that he had a different name originally, which was surprising to say the least. She walked over to Bogo's office to talk about what she and her people had found last night.

"Hey chief. I have the report for you about the break-in last night."

"Good work Wilde. Tell me, what do you think of these terrorists?" Judy paused for a moment before responding.

"To be honest, I have a grudging respect for them. They're good at what they do and seem to know how to market themselves to the people. At the same time though… They really burn my tail… If they had tipped us off and let us get a warrant, we would have been able to collect everything that they have shared with the public. Only instead, their actions have made all of the evidence inadmissible in court, so we can't actually build a case against Santiago." Bogo sat there and shook his head.

"I agree with you. Well, mostly anyway. You see Wilde, even if we had been tipped off there's no guarantee that we would have ever gotten the warrant. I was reading through some of the emails that leaked as well and it seems that Santiago's goons have contacts even within the courts. I don't know about you, but when even the courts seem to be willing to do a certain puma favors, it is very unlikely that _we_ would ever be able to bring him down." Judy was losing patience now. She had been chasing after this terrorist for almost a week now and her boss now seemed to be on his side?

"So what? If even _you_ think that these guys are doing the right thing, then why don't we just stop our investigation entirely? Throw out the case? Let the Tragic Pack roam free?"

"Because, even if we agree with them we have to catch them. Politics can be broken Judy, and it isn't our job to fix them. Our job is to uphold the law, even if the individuals breaking it aren't the real enemies."

"Why are we talking about this? I get the feeling that you are about to ask me to do something that you know I won't like." Bogo didn't say anything for a minute as he mulled over his choice of words.

"I just got a call from mayor Lionheart. I need you to go visit Santiago and assure him of his safety." Judy simply couldn't take it anymore.

"What!? Doesn't he have bodyguards?"

"That's not the point Wilde."

"No, I get it. The point is that Santiago wants to show all of Zootopia that he owns me and the ZPD!"

"Wilde, he's a citizen like anybody else."

"A citizen who I don't think deserves protection."

"So you won't do it?" Judy closed her eyes.

"Chief, you know I can't say no."

"I know Judy. You have no idea how much respect I have for you and your commitment to upholding the law." Bogo turned around and looked out the window for a long moment before he continued. "I'll let you in on a little secret. After this whole thing blows over, I'm going to resign as the chief of police. I tried my best to shield you from it Judy, but the politics that come with this job just leave me feeling betrayed. I took this job hoping to guarantee the rights of all of our citizens, but at this point I feel like I am only protecting the _interests_ of a few." Judy walked over to the big buffalo to try and comfort him.

"Hey, it's okay. Zootopia has problems and we can't fix all of them. I remember Nick telling me that sometimes the best thing you can do is try, and that's what we're going to do." The Bison let out a long sigh.

"Alright. Anyway, Santiago's driver is waiting outside for you. Thanks for that by the way…"

Judy walked out of the office, turning back as she exited. Bogo was just standing there by the window, a resigned look on his face. She headed downstairs and saw the kangaroo standing by the door with a half-cocked smile as usual.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Wilde!"

"Thanks. I guess you're taking me to go see Julio Sanchez?" The kangaroo held up his paws in a stopping signal.

"I'd be careful saying that around him Mrs. Wilde. You see, it makes him more than a little bit upset, what with the scandal and all." Judy rolled her eyes as she followed the kangaroo out of the ZPD and to the car that was parked across the street.

Arriving at his company's headquarters, Judy got the overwhelming sense of not only being small in stature, but wealth too. The towering pedestal of glass and steel had a sense of refined class to it, but exuded a sense of wealth that was hard to comprehend. She walked into the lobby following closely behind Crowley who used his security card to get past the turnstiles and to the elevators. Crowley pushed the button to take them to the very top of the building, the place that she had expected Santiago's office to be. The elevator's doors opened to reveal a hallway that was done in the style of a Mexican villa, the walls a warm orange and the floor tiled. At the end of the hall was his office, two large glass doors leading into it. Crowley held the door open for her as she walked in and stood near the doors as Santiago carried on a conversation with three Hyenas in suits.

"Sir, we assure you, it's impossible for the city of Zootopia to build a case against you. Everything that has been presented so far either implicates only those below you or is circumstantial at best." One of the Hyenas nodded vigorously in agreement. She seemed to be the one in charge.

"Indeed. Furthermore, since all of it was obtained by The Tragic Pack, it won't be admissible in any court. The only thing that you have to worry about is your public image." The final hyena now chimed in.

"We think that you could remedy that with supporting some parks and other philanthropic activities. Besides, give this whole thing a few years and it will all blow over. Forgotten, just like the Canidae neighborhood." Santiago nodded thoughtfully to the lawyers before noticing that Judy was present. He took a leather journal of some sort that he had been writing in while his lawyers were talking and now placed into a drawer in his large wooden and glass desk.

"I'm sorry, but my friend from the ZPD has arrived," Judy bristled at this claim, "she and I have important matters to discuss." The hyenas left the office with a nod, leaving only Santiago and Judy.

Santiago reached over to a pitcher of water that he had on his desk and poured a drink for himself. He offered Judy a glass as well but she declined, moving to the chair in front of his desk so that she could sit across from him. Santiago didn't seem to be in any sort of rush, allowing the silence to spread out between them for some time. Eventually speaking in his usual cool, reserved tones.

"Mrs. Wilde. I am sure you are aware that a part of my history I had wished to remain concealed was made public today."

"Yes, I am."

"I am assuming that you and your associates at the ZPD have some sort of plan to fix this situation."

"Well, I was told to come here and guarantee your security if that's what you mean."

"While that is good, it isn't the real reason for why I sent for you. I am sure that you can guess what it is I am really looking for."

"The identity of The Scarlet Bandit."

"Yes. Tell me, have you and your team found anything yet?"

"Sir, you are not part of the investigation so I cannot reveal any details that we haven't already passed along to the press. You are going to have to wait just like anybody else." Santiago raised his glass to take another drink.

"I see… Tell me, do you at least have a list of suspects?"

"Of course! What do you take us for at the ZPD? It's not like we haven't been working our tails off to find these guys, they're just better than expected at what they do."

"A little too good wouldn't you say?"

"I have a feeling that you have someone in mind you want me to investigate."

"Indeed. Wouldn't you say that it is odd that the scarlet rogue seems to know not only Zootopia like the very back of his paw, but also the ZPD?"

"We did think it was a little odd that he varies his methods so quickly. Then again, it could just be that the individuals behind these attacks are simply very careful."

"I'd wager my dear that it's more than that. In fact, my own sources say that there's one individual who would fit the bill for the scarlet rogue perfectly." Judy shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Nicolas Wilde, your husband, meets every criterion that we can think of. He is a known criminal, has a working knowledge of the area and has training from the ZPD. Furthermore, according to my team's photo analysis he is even the same height and weight as the scarlet rogue. So tell me. Is he one of your suspects?" Judy swallowed hard, trying to remove a lump that seemed to suddenly appear in her throat.

"Nick… He… He has an alibi."

"Really? And what would that be?"

"Well, he was home with me during the first attack and the during the second he was out with one of his friends." Santiago took another sip and shrugged.

"Interesting. So I am to assume then that you were awake at the time of the first attack?"

"Well n-"

"And that you yourself saw him with his supposed _friend_ during the second?"

"Well… n-"

"So then you admit that you have no way to truly verify his alibi." Judy didn't say anything for a minute, the shock and the fear rolling over her like waves. Soon though it was replaced by anger and rage.

"Yeah. Fine. I'll keep that in mind, okay?" A silence hung between them for a brief time. "…Anything else?"

"No. I just wanted to plant that seed in your mind. I assure you that my own teams can take care of security."

"Good." Judy got up and started heading towards the door, turning around as Crowley held it open for her, "one last thing. We. Aren't. _Friends_."


	11. Chapter 11

Everyone was all smiles today at the warehouse, the exhilaration from the previous night's raid still fresh in their minds. It was now around noon as Nick looked around, bemused that they were all still wide awake even though some of them hadn't slept for the last twenty-four hours. Walking past Mike he commented on the situation.

"Well, you all seem rather refreshed all things considered."

"Ha, well I could say the same about you. Mr. full time father and part time rogue."

"Well, with enough coffee just about anything is possible."

Their pleasant conversation was interrupted as Mabel raised a hoof and called over to them.

"Hey guys! I got something you're all going to want to see."

The rest of them headed over to her desk and gathered around in front of the oversized monitor. On the screen was a chat log between Whiz and Dr. S. Mabel tried her best to summarize what had been going on.

"This guy claims that he knows a lot more about Santiago's past as Julio Sanchez if we're interested." Nick smiled.

"Great! Though I'm curious, how would he happen to know about his past?"

"He says that he's his son." Nick's smile turned to awe.

"Wow. Well that is a good source isn't it? What does he want in return?"

"Nothing he says. He just wants us to help finally expose Santiago for all of his lies and betrayals."

"Can you get him on the phone?"

"I can do one better. I can get him on a video-chat if you wanna."

"Great! Did he say when he would be available to tell us all about our dear friend Julio?"

"He said he can take a break in an hour or two to talk to us."

"Good. Now if you'll pardon me, the scarlet rogue and the tawny bandit need to make an appearance."

An hour later, Nick and Finnick were set up where they normally filled their videos for announcements to the public. Nick gave his mask a few adjustments as Mike and Mabel finished setting up the voice masking system and the camera. Mabel gave Nick a countdown and then on a TV screen in front of him appeared the face of a very familiar puma. Nick couldn't help but comment on his identity given his surprise.

"Doctor Miguel Sanchez?" The doctor seemed to be taken aback by this. He was apparently talking to them from inside his doctor's office on his phone.

"How do you…? Well, I suppose being the Scarlet Rogue you must know a lot of things about a lot of people. As I told one of your friends, I am the son of Julio Sanchez, better known as Santiago Ramirez."

"Yes, you told the whiz about that already. We have some questions about him and his past if you don't mind." The puma nodded and shifted a little uncomfortably.

"Sure, but please be quick. I have to see another patient in a half hour."

"So, why did he change his name?"

"That bits pretty straightforward. He was a habitual gambler and was in a large amount of debt. He figured that changing his name would be an easy way to get away from his problems."

"Right, change names and move to a small town that no one has ever heard of."

"Exactly. I guess he must have learned his lesson."

"Apparently. So, what else do you happen to know about him?"

"Well, he always talked about how much ne hated living in Canidae. I guess he saw it as the reason why he was a failure. He had a cousin you see who ended up living in another part of the city. He got a good education, went to college and became a doctor. My father talked endlessly about him apparently. Well, that's what my mother says at any rate." A realization seemed to click in Nick's mind.

"Your mother? Wait, you don't know this stuff personally?"

"No, of course not. I wasn't even born yet you see."

"Oh." Nick could feel the tears welling up. He tried hard to push the thoughts out and focus on the task at hand.

"Do you need anything else?"

"Yeah. Did he have any unusual habits or mannerisms? Stuff that he would do every day." Doctor Sanchez paused for a moment as he thought the question over.

"Mother always complained about how he just _had_ to write everything down."

"What do you mean?"

"He always had a ledger where he would write down all of the bets that he won or lost. He loved to keep track of details I guess. I can't think of anything else."

"That's fine, you've already given me more than enough information to bring him down I think."

"Good to hear! Now, if you'll pardon me, I have to go see a patient now."

Having everything that he needed, he ended the video-chat and took off the mask. Tears had been rolling down his face towards the end of the chat and the others could now tell. Finnick reached up and put a comforting paw on his arm.

"Hey man, chin up. A lot of us grew up without dads."

"I know. It's just… It still hurts sometimes; you know?"

Finnick patted him on the arm and walked off to grab him some coffee. Nick collected his thoughts and got up. There was still work to be done and a neighborhood to save. Checking the news, he was glad to see that protests were now a daily feature of life in Zootopia, and that the pressure was on not only Lionheart but also Santiago. Unfortunately, Santiago had said that he was still going ahead with the demolition regardless if an investigation was launched against him or not. Nick set down the tablet and went back to his arrayed maps. He had to find another target to hit to apply pressure to Santiago. It was apparent at this point that no matter how much evidence they put online that none of it would stick. Then again, maybe it was just because they hadn't looked for a big enough stash. Nick called Mabel over to his desk.

"So, what all have you learned from emails that we have collected so far?"

"So far? Well, I put all the ones online that prove that Santiago's companies are involved in city hall and its politics online."

"But you haven't found any that directly implicate him?"

"Well no, it seems that he is pretty good about covering his tracks."

"So what you're saying is that we haven't struck close enough to him yet." Mabel followed Nick's gaze before snapping back to him.

"You can't be serious. That place is going to be harder to get into than city hall." Nick grabbed a marker and circled the location of Santiago's corporate headquarters.

"Oh I'm serious. Besides, we need to keep the ZPD on their toes." Nick looked down at his phone to check the date, "Oh nuts."

"What?"

"The next morning my girls have a dance recital."

"Is that a problem?"

"For me? No. For Judy? Maybe."


	12. Chapter 12

Nick felt bad making the team work overtime, but he really didn't have much of a choice. If he let the ZPD rest between hits, then they would be more well rested and prepared for the next time that he needed to attack. He had gotten the call from Judy saying that she wasn't going to be able to make it home tonight and he'd heard the sadness in her voice. Walking towards the headquarters of Santiago's real estate firm he mused quietly to himself, his shadow dramatically stretching towards the skyscraper under the streetlights.

"Don't worry Judy. This will all be over soon."

He walked to the building dressed as a janitor for the night shift, a fake keycard in paw that Mabel had specially prepared for this evening. She was once again back home making sure his kits were asleep while sitting at the dining room table with her laptop. His baseball cap obscured his face well enough, but he couldn't help but feel more than a little exposed. This entire operation had to be _the_ riskiest thing that he had ever done in his whole life. Walking towards the front desk he tipped his hat and headed for the turnstiles. Swiping the suspiciously blank card he waited one breathless moment for the turnstile to unlock and for him to be let in. The light turned green and he walked through, pretty as could be.

Getting in the elevator he quickly checked for camera's before opening his backpack and letting Finnick out, who was also wearing a janitor's outfit. They exited onto one of the floors that Nick knew was used by Santiago's legal staff, the words 'Legal Department' giving him confidence that he was indeed in the right place.

Stepping out of the elevator he went straight to the janitor's closet that was at one end of the hall and once again swiped the keycard. Mabel had told him that it was in fact a universal keycard, something which in theory could open any door in the building that was locked with a card reader. He had decided to limit its use for the time being though, figuring that it would be more than a little suspicious if a janitor were to just randomly walk into boss's office to do some impromptu cleaning. Taking out a mop and spray bottle from the closest Nick started to go from desk to desk as Finnick now did the same, looking for any computer that was still on.

It didn't take too long for him to find one at the end of a row of cubicles. He looked to one side of the little office and saw that they had a Gazelle calendar with the night's date circled. Apparently, they had been in a rather large hurry to get to a concert. Nick now took out the phone and plugged it into the computer that was still logged on. Within seconds he could hear Mabel's slightly impatient voice on the other end.

"Took you long enough."

"Thanks, but a Janitor running over to the nearest computer doesn't exactly look normal now does it."

"Fair enough. Alright, I'm breaking into their files. Just give me a few minutes while I look to see if I can find anything good."

"Great." Nick paused as he seemed to remember something important. "Whiz, don't delete all the security footage when we're done. Leave the camera's to Santiago's office alone."

"Uh… Sure… Why?"

"It's a surprise!"

"Whatever."

Nick went back to cleaning, trying his best to look natural as Mabel busted through various walls of digital security like the virtual juggernaut that she was. He couldn't shake the feeling though that something felt off, that he was being watched. Meanwhile, in the security control room near the base of the building a kangaroo stood near the back watching all of the monitors, his thick Australian accent cutting through the silence.

"Odd. Hey mates, do we have any foxes on the night shift cleaning crew?" One of the security guards looked up at him blurry eyed.

"Let me check," the guard pulled up the roster of the night's cleaning crew and then flipped through the camera's checking each of them. Pausing when he got to the two foxes who cleaning in the legal department. "Huh, yeah I don't know who those two are."

"Well then, it seems that we have some uninvited guests. Call the coppers, I'm going to give them a warm welcome." The kangaroo adjusted his hat sharply and headed for the elevators.

Nick heard Mabel's voice call to him from his phone.

"Rogue, we've got a problem. It seems that somebody has called the cops." Nick threw his paws up.

"Great! I was hoping that it would take them, you know, a bit longer to figure this out but I guess that's not happening. Bandit, take off the janitor's uniform, change of plans." Finnick took off the janitor's clothes revealing the black robes underneath and began to put on his mask.

"Does anything ever go according to plan for us?" The doors to the elevator swung open and the kangaroo came bounding towards him.

"Apparently not. Duck!"

Crowley leaped over them before coming to a skidding stop and turning around. Nick had forgotten just how big kangaroos were, and thus hunkered down slightly panicked. Finnick came towards the kangaroo with a chair over his head ready to swing at the big guy. The kangaroo simply turned around and kicked the chair out of his hands and to the other side of the room before putting up his paws in a boxing stance.

"G'day mates! Been looking to pick a fight with you for over a week now!" Nick called out loud enough for Mabel to hear.

"You got what you need?"

"Yup."

"Great!" Turning towards the kangaroo as he grabbed the phone, "nice meeting you too!"

So nick and Finnick are on opposite sides of Crowley. Either nick/finnick ducks Crowley or Finnick runs around Crowley in order for the next part to occur

Nick picked up Finnick and started sprinting away from the Kangaroo and towards the other end of the law office, knocking over filing cabinets and chairs as he pushed towards the stairs. Finnick, who was being held under Nick's arm reached into a bag and pulled out a what appeared to be a stick of dynamite and lit the fuse. The kangaroo bounded up the hall behind them and jumped over them again, blocking their path to the stairway. Finnick brandished the stick of dynamite in the air as Nick came to a stop.

"Ha! You're going to blow yourself up instead of being captured? I like your style mate!" Finnick gave a small laugh.

"No man, but you might want to cover your ears."

Finnick threw the enormous firecracker towards the kangaroo, where it detonated just in front of him causing an ear shattering bang. Nick and Finnick had both folded back and covered their ears though, leaving them feeling less disoriented than Crowley. Nick headed towards the stairs, sliding under Crowley and smashed the door handle to start heading up the stairs, jamming the door by sticking a chair between the door and the stairwells railing as he closed it. Nick now started to run up the stairs as fast as he could. Cops entering the stairwell from below could be heard shouting to each other as he continued up.

Nick passed the phone to Finnick, motioning for him try and organize something with Mabel.

"Whiz, we're heading towards the roof as planned. Any chance that we can lock the door behind us when we get up there?"

"Done and done. Anything else?"

"Yeah. How exactly are we getting off the roof? No one has told me anything about that."

"Oh well you see that's because Nick told me that you're afraid of heights and"

The roof door access was in sight, but Nick suddenly stopped and looked at the door next to him on the floor just below. Setting Finnick down he lined up a kick and smashed into the door, knocking it open. Finnick was more than a bit annoyed at yet another change in plans.

"Rogue! What are you doing? The roof is that way!"

"Just stay there, I need to grab something. Well, assuming that it's here anyway."

Nick ignored Finnick's protests as he moved into the empty office. It was exactly as he had expected it to be. Expensive, tasteful, but exuding that sense of power and grace he had come to expect from Santiago. Getting over to the large wooden and glass desk he looked around for any sign of the item that he was looking for. Not seeing it on the desk he tried to open one of its drawers, only to find that they were locked.

"I really don't have time for this."

Nick took out the last stick of dynamite that he had from the demolition site and tapped it to the bottom inside of the desk where Santiago's legs would normally be. Stepping back behind a corner he detonated the stick and then rushed in to inspect in the wreckage of the desk. Off to one side of the room, one of the drawers had been shot out and was now laying on its side with most of the contents still inside. He casually glanced through the contents and found what he was looking for beneath the random files and expensive looking pens. Taking the black leather book he took out a plastic bag and stuffed it inside. Finnick was now more than a little irate at the situation.

"Rogue!"

"I'm coming! Let's go!" Mabel's voice cut in between their shouts.

"Rogue what are you doing? The police are only five floors below you!"

She was cutoff as Nick got to the roof access door and took out his keycard to unlock it. He was sweating and was out of breath as he swiped the car and heard the door unlock. Getting out through the door he slammed it shut behind him and walked out towards the edge of the roof. Looking down he could see the cop cars surrounding the building. Not wasting any time, he set Finnick down and reached into the bag to grab two things, a front facing baby carrier and a parachute.

"Bandit, help me with this will you?"

"Oh no! We're not jumping off this building!"

"We don't really have a choice right now. Now stop arguing and help me with these straps."

Finnick stopped complaining and helped Nick get into the straps before Nick grabbed him and secured him in the baby harness. Finnick took one look over the side of the building before moving to cover his eyes with his large ears.

"Hey Rogue, I decided that I would rather take my chances with the cops okay?"

"And risk you telling Judy everything? Not likely."

The cops had apparently reached the door to the roof that they had just came through as he heard the sound of the larger cops smashing into it. Illuminating him from above Nick shielded his eyes as a bright searchlight from a helicopter shown down on him. Running towards the edge of the roof he leapt off into the night, waiting a few seconds before he pulled the chute. The light from the helicopters were still on him though as he began his graceful decent away from the office building. He turned around to get one last look at his latest target.

"Ha! Check that out Bandit!" On the side of the building the symbol of the tragic pack had been mapped out in all of its low resolution glory. "Looks like the whiz had a bit of spare time on her hooves."

Finnick was too busy covering his eyes to notice anything that was going on around them. He did however have some rather sage words regarding their current situation.

"Nick I can hear helicopters and I know that they can see us. So. How are we going to get back to the warehouse without being followed this time?"

"Don't worry, Boris has a surprise waiting for us in the river."

"The river? Aw man. I hate water."

They drifted down towards the river where Nick had remembered that Boris said he would be waiting. Sitting next to a pleasure boat pier, a large black motor boat came out towards the middle of the river, matching their speed and direction. Nick aimed carefully with the parachute for the boat landing in a manner that was almost graceful, though would be accurately described as crashing with style. Boris punched the power as Nick landed and Finnick freed himself from the constraints of the baby carrier before taking stock of the situation.

"Great! We're on a boat, in a river with two helicopters following us! How is this supposed to help us get away again!?" Boris spoke without turning around, picking up a SCUBA respirator and handing two to Nick.

"Is not boat. Is submarine." Boris clamped down on his respirator and Nick did the same before pushing the third into Finnick's mouth.

As they approached a bridge the water level in the boat began to rise and a hiss could be heard from a series of darkly painted SCUBA tanks that were arranged along the side of the boat. Once under the bridge and out of the choppers spotlights, Boris pulled a different lever and the boat slid under the water completely. Nick looked up from under the water at the searchlights above, amused as they moved back and forth trying to find the suddenly missing boat. Under the water the boat couldn't move nearly as fast, but it wasn't more than a half hour before they arrived back at the warehouse. The boat pulled up under the part of the warehouse that extended over the water and into the bay. Boris adjusted the buoyancy of the submarine and brought it back to the surface before attaching some cables to it and signaling to Ming to bring it up into the warehouse on a modified shop crane.

Finnick stepped out of the boat looking more than a little frazzled and looked at Nick with daggers in his eyes.

"When were you planning on telling me that not only were we going to be jumping off of a building tonight, but also throw ourselves into a river?" Nick took off his mask and shook off some of the water.

"To be honest? Exactly when I did. Figured that you wouldn't exactly be thrilled." Finnick began to stalk away angrily.

"Yeah well you know what? You pull something like that again and I'm through!"

"Hopefully, we won't have to. I'm hoping that we collected enough information here to make the whole city stop for a day. With a little luck, in the thousands of emails that we just stole, there will be one that holds undeniable proof that our Santiago, aka, Julio is directly involved in corruption."

"Good! I was getting tired these late nights anyway." Nick held the mask in his hands as he examined it.

"Yeah. You and me both buddy," Nick looked at his phone and noticed the time, "nuts. I got to get back home and start making breakfast. The girls have their big recital today. But first, is anyone going to drink that pot of coffee?"

Nick didn't wait for an answer as he went over to the coffee pot and proceeded to drink it one go. With that boost, he was now ready to start yet another day without adequate sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Judy sipped at the coffee that she was holding, carefully holding the Styrofoam cup in one paw as she held her radio in the other. Ever since last night she had been awake and her fatigue was starting to show. The scarlet rogue had not only broken into the corporate headquarters of Santiago's real estate agency, but he had stolen thousands of files which proved that members of his company had been directed to try and put pressure on city hall. The evidence for corruption was abundantly clear, so much so that her search for clues regarding the scarlet rogue had now turned into a search for evidence of corruption. It seemed that given the current situation the district attorney's office was finally willing to cooperate.

What she hadn't counted on though was Santiago releasing a video claiming that in response to the break in, he would schedule the demolition of the Canidae neighborhood to begin tomorrow in earnest. There wasn't much that she could do about that bit of revenge, the puma already owned all the property and was legally allowed to do so, even if he was under investigation. Still, she was happy that at least Santiago's company would bite the dust even if she couldn't reach the puma himself.

Listening as all the reports came in from the various teams, she didn't even notice Santiago coming up behind her. She jumped as he spoke to her.

"Mrs. Wilde. I assume that you have enough evidence now to make an arrest?" Judy sipped her coffee and didn't turn around.

"Nope. It seems that as usual, once they got into the computer systems that they were able to erase most of the security tapes that you had recording. Although the one from your office did show the scarlet Rogue, he still had his mask on and we thus we don't know enough to make an identification. So even if your driver told us that they were two foxes that doesn't help much. Do you know how many foxes there are in Zootopia?"

"I see. Yet your teams seem more interested in collecting evidence against my company and my employees at the moment? Isn't that a bit out of order?" Judy turned to face the puma now, a faint smirk across her face.

"I don't think so. What I think is that there's a particular individual in this city who has been exercising an unlawful amount of control over the city's institutions and that by taking advantage of the situation caused by the scarlet rogue that I am finally able to collect some decent evidence." Santiago was now looking more than a little bit annoyed.

"Interesting. You are putting a greater priority on proving that someone has asked for favors from city hall instead of pursuing a known terrorist who has now broken into not only private buildings but government archives. Mrs. Wilde. If I didn't know better, I would say that you are neglecting your duty as a steward of our fair city." Before Judy could respond her phone went off. It was a call from Nick.

"Hi Carrots, so when are you going to be getting here? The girls' recital is starting in a half hour." Judy looked a little surprised.

"Oh! I almost forgot, thank you Nick! I'll be over right away! Love you, by!" Santiago was now visibly angry.

"I see. The property and safety of a citizen is less valuable than your kits recital." Judy was getting upset now herself.

"No, but I am a mother before I am an officer and I think that the gathering of evidence can take care of itself."

"Oh really! Because so far I have seen you gather evidence twice now and yet you still have come up empty handed when it comes to the scarlet rogue! Furthermore, not only has he stolen thousands of emails and other sensitive documents from our servers, but he has also stolen something of great personal value to me from my office! Tell me, is failure the norm on the ZPD?" Judy was enraged. She balled up her paws and tried to contain her anger. She relaxed a little though as an idea came to mind.

"Fine. If you are so concerned about this terrorist, then I am going to have to put you into protective custody." Motioning to some nearby officers, "Officers, escort Mr. Ramirez back to his apartment. He is to remain there until the threat of the Scarlet Rogue is eliminated for his own good."

"You can't do this! This is vindictive!"

"Sorry citizen, but it's for your own good."

Santiago went quietly as it became clear that he didn't have much of a choice. Judy felt a bit of pride as she realized that she had just beat him at his own game, but she couldn't escape from the fact that there was indeed a terrorist on the loose and that she still needed to find him. Even if she had found herself building up some grudging respect for the criminal. She got out her phone and tried to blink away a tear that came up as she typed.

 _Sorry Nick, change of plans._


	14. Chapter 14

Nick sat in his seat next to Mr. and Mrs. Hopps as he waited for the ballet recital to start. Marcus was sitting on the seat next to him. He had been nursing an extra-large cup of coffee since he had gotten home last night and had to get the girls ready for their recital. When they had asked where mommy was though, he had told them that she was very busy, but that if they got lucky she might make it in towards the end. They hadn't seemed too excited about this, but told him that they understood how mommy was very busy. However, they didn't understand why the scarlet rogue was so bad. Nicole was the one that seemed to have the hardest time understanding the situation.

"The Scarlet Rogue and the Tawny Bandit are heroes aren't they?"

"No sweetie. They are terrorists." Jessica didn't understand this word.

"What's a terrorist daddy?"

"A terrorist is someone who tries to scare people into doing something." Nicole once again seemed to disagree with Nick.

"But daddy, the scarlet rogue and the tragic pack don't scare people."

"They don't scare _most_ people. You see girls, a terrorist can be a hero to some and villain to others." Jessica seemed to finally get the message.

"Oh… Kind of like how you like chocolate ice cream and mommy doesn't right?" Nick gave a little chuckle.

"Sure girls. You see, just because a lot of people happen to agree with the Tragic Pack doesn't mean that what they are doing is right. The law exists so that everyone can get a fair say in things, and the Tragic Pack is ignoring the law so that their opinion can be heard above everyone else." The girls nodded, now understanding the situation a little bit better.

Nick was now sitting in the chair waiting anxiously for Judy to show up, but as the music started and the first set of dancers moved onto the stage he began to lose hope. By the time they had almost reached the end of the recital he knew that Judy wasn't going to be able to make it. The recital ended and the girls came on stage with the others to do their bows. Nick could tell that they were looking for their mother and saw the disappointment in their eyes when she wasn't there.

With the performance over, Nick stood up and got ready to talk to the other parents at the snack bar. As he stood up though he saw Judy standing in the door at the back of the theater out of breath and tears welling up in her eyes. Not missing a beat, Nick passed Marcus off to his grandparents and walked over to Judy. She had already left the door and looked like she was heading out of the theater. Nick jogged after her, not wanting her to leave without him being able to talk to her.

"Hey." Judy didn't look up as she stood in front of a door that led outside.

"Nick…" The tears in her eyes now started to fall down her cheeks, "I'm a terrible parent Nick!" She began to cry and buried her face in Nick's chest. "I'm so busy chasing after some stupid terrorist that I don't have time to go to my own daughter's recital! And that dumb puma! He made me stay even longer because of his stupid 'important item'. I'm an awful mother!" Nick cradled her in his arms and stroked her head.

"Shh… It's okay sweetie, it's okay. I talked to the girls this morning, they understand. I bet that dumb puma said you couldn't do your job huh?" Judy paused in between sobs to look up at Nick.

"Yeah… I got him back though. I put him under protective custody at his own apartment."

"Clever Bunny. Now, what do you say we go and say hi to your parents and our girls before you go back to hunting down terrorists, okay?" Judy sniffed hard and tried her best to put on a smile, her voice still cracking a little.

"Okay… Thanks Nick."

"No problem carrots." Nick gave her a kiss on the head and led her back to where the other parents were gathering for refreshments.

Judy did her best to put on a brave face, but was pleasantly surprised at the happiness the girls showed when they saw her. They gave her a play by play of the performance and introduced her to all of their friends. Nick knew that this would happen, that their daughters would be so incredibly proud of their mother the Assistant Superintendent. Letting her get lost in the roll of a proud mother, Nick checked his phone. He had to give Finnick a call.

"Hey, we have one more job tonight."

"What!? Man I thought we were done!"

"We aren't done until we stop the destruction of the neighborhood."

"Alright fine. So where are we going?"

"I'll send you the address. I'll meet you there later tonight. Don't worry about bringing the equipment, I'll just pick it up in an hour or so."

"Alright, talk to you later Nick."

"Bye."

Nick's eyes were hard now. He still had one last job to do.


	15. Chapter 15

Judy rubbed her eyes as she poured through footage from the various sources last night. Most of the security camera footage from Santiago's headquarters had been deleted, with the notable exception of the footage from Santiago's office. It was odd to her, it meant the Scarlet Rogue _wanted_ to be seen stealing some sort of journal from his office. She put it out of her mind though as she flipped to the footage from the helicopters that had been following him after he had jumped from the building. This was by far the strangest part to her. Somehow, the boat had gone from racing down the river to suddenly disappearing. She had already sent teams to investigate the area under the bridge, but they hadn't found anything. Pausing on the moment when the boat should have left the other side of the bridge she tried to puzzle out what she knew so far.

The boat was traveling at speed down the river. It went under a bridge and then never came out the other side. Her officers had told her that there was nothing under the bridge and her dive teams had told her that they hadn't found anything at the bottom of the river.

"It didn't float; it didn't sink… Did it… Swim?" Judy shook her head a little but then paused. "Once you've eliminated the impossible, what remains has to be the truth…"

She looked carefully at the footage from the helicopters from just after the boat should have come out from under the bridge again and zoomed in. There, just barely visible through the pixilation was a trail of bubbles that the pilots had missed. She felt a rush of excitement as she tried to figure out where the boat, or submarine more accurately, must have gone. There were only a few marinas around Zootopia, but it didn't seem likely that they would allow a boat as 'unique' as the one used by the Tragic Pack go unnoticed. No, she had to look for something else, something that was close to the water and inconspicuous. Pulling up a set of satellite images she looked at all the buildings that were near the river that the submarine had dived into.

Everything near the water seemed to be some sort of apartment or high end business. There were a few old buildings, but none of them seemed to be close enough to the water and they were owned by respectable companies. There was one building though that did seem to fit the criteria that she had. It was large, it was abandoned and it hung out over the water. This was the place and she knew it, confidently calling up Chief Bogo.

"Chief, I've got something that you're going to want to see."

It was about three hours later, after the sun had set and storm clouds had started to move in that the officers were ready to go around the warehouse. Judy was in the mobile command center making sure that they stayed in their unmarked cars, the last thing that she wanted to do was let the Tragic Pack know that they were about to be raided. With everyone in position she got on the radio to give the orders.

"Alright everyone, stick to the plan. You have your orders." She paused for a second to take a look out the window, "Go!"

From all around the warehouse unmarked trucks and vans exploded with officers in full assault gear. They ran up to the different sides and breached in through low level windows, throwing in flashbangs before rushing in themselves. Judy felt a strong sense of pride as she watched them raid the warehouse, but it was bitter sweet. The whole thing was over in less than five minutes as she heard all of the teams coming in over their various channels telling her that the warehouse was clear. Chief Bogo, who was sitting next to her rested a hoof on her shoulder.

"Come on Wilde, let's check out who the _Tragic Pack_ really was."

The thunderstorm had come closer, and Judy could now hear the thunder from the approaching storm as lightning flashes crisscrossed the sky in the distance. She glanced over the first of the terrorists. There was a bear, a moose, a panda, a deer and a fox. Her eyes paused as she looked at the little fox that stood before her, her heart in her mouth.

"Finnick?" His ears were folded flat, and he flinched at her mentioning his name.

"Hey Judy."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm a member of this ' _terrorist organization._ '" He said it in a mocking tone, but he still didn't look at her.

"Where's the Scarlet Rogue?"

"He's not here. He left to finish the job." There was a long silence as she felt her heart start to race.

"Who is he?" Finnick just stared at the ground. "Who is he!?"

"Judy, why would I tell you that?"

Judy was now starting to panic, she had a terrible feeling that she knew who it was. She took out her phone and dialed the one number that she had desperately hoped she wouldn't have to. The phone rang for a while as she quietly begged for him to pick up.

"Hey Carrots, what's up?" She struggled to keep her voice level, to keep the panic from seeping through.

"Nick, where are you?" The voice on the other end responded just as calm and carefree as ever.

"Oh, well since your parents are in town I figured I would take the opportunity to go have a guy's night out with Finnick." Judy swallowed hard to get the lump out of her throat.

"Oh, that's good. So you're with him right now?" She looked at Finnick who was standing in front of her, she knew that he could hear this too.

"Yeah, he's just in the bathroom right now. Don't worry carrots, I won't be out late tonight. Talk to you later, bye." Judy didn't say anything, she just let the call end before putting the phone back in her pocket.

"Liar."

Judy had gotten back in the van and taken several of her best officers with her. She couldn't cry right now; she was just too angry to do so. She knew that she had told Nick that Santiago was under protective custody at his apartment, and she figured that he probably knew where that was. She didn't stay in the truck as it arrived at Santiago's apartment, she ran out the door, running past the other officers who all had grim expressions on their faces.

Judy busted out of the elevator and ran to the door to Santiago's penthouse apartment. It was locked. Judy jumped up against one wall and then jumped to hit the door with all of her strength, causing the lock to snap. Standing there, just outside the balcony that he had come in through and left his parachute dangling off of, was the Scarlet Rogue. He looked up to see her and froze, Judy snapped.

"Paws in the air! Now!" The Rogue moved his paws up in the air, his masked visage still facing her. Judy inched closer to him, her stun gun at the ready. "You… You have the right to remain silent!" She was now standing in front of him. "Anything you say… Can and will be used against you in a court of law!" She took one hand off of the stun gun and moved to remove his mask. "If you cannot afford a lawyer on will be provided to you by the court!" She ripped off the mask and looked into Nick's sad eyes. She couldn't help it anymore, she started to cry harder than she had ever cried in her life. Her stun gun was still in the air as her head bowed and tears streamed down her face. "You liar! You promised me that you wouldn't get involved and you lied!" Nick looked at her softly, his paws still above his head.

"I did, and I'm sorry Judy."

"You dumb fox! Why? Why did you have to put everything that we have at risk?" Her voice cracked as she shouted at him.

"I love you Judy, but I still have one more job to do." Nick raised his head and looked towards the back of the room. The rest of the police had already entered the room and had their weapons trained on Nick. Behind them, Santiago could be seen with an evil grin on his face.

"I told you Mrs. Wilde. Your husband should have been the prime suspect all along." Judy let out another shuddering sob. An annoyed look flickered across Nick's face.

"Ah, well you see you were right on that front. Actually, it just so happens that I have the perfect piece of evidence to prove that I am indeed _the_ Scarlet Rogue on my person right now. Officer Wilde, if you were to reach into my robes right now, you would find a very unique piece of stolen property, one that only the scarlet rogue could possess." Judy had stopped crying now, slightly confused as to what Nick was up to. She gingerly reached into his robes and pulled out a black leather journal. Nick spoke up again.

"You see, that's the journal that I, the Scarlet Rogue, stole from the desk of _you_ Santiago Ramirez, at Your office." Santiago's eyes lit up in satisfaction.

"Yes, yes it is! Give it to me officer Wilde!" Nick let his smile finally burst through.

"Everyone heard that right?" The other officers shifted around looking a little bit confused. "Also, no, she won't be giving it to you. You see, that right there is evidence that ties me to a crime scene, specifically breaking and entering into your office, and it has just been discovered. Which means that it's admissible in a court of law as it was discovered during the capture of a known terrorist. One other thing. The contents of that journal are _very_ interesting. I didn't read it all the way through but it was just filled with references to members of city hall and how much money that you had given them with certain expectations. If I didn't know better, I would say that this journal is the greatest single piece of evidence that exists, proving you have been bribing members of city hall for years!" Santiago's look of glee turned to one of horror in an instant as a few of the officers turned around to face him. Judy had stopped crying now and was looking at Nick with wide eyes. "Now, if you'll pardon me, I believe that me and this journal have a date with an interrogation room." Santiago leapt towards Nick, trying to shove the other officers out of the way. Judy gave them the order.

"Restrain him! And you, Nicolas Wilde. You are under arrest… You clever fox."

Judy smiled at Nick as she took him out of the room in handcuffs, Nick beaming all the way, pausing as he stepped out of the apartment.

"It's called a hustle Santiago! Better luck next time!"


	16. Chapter 16

Nick and the other members of the Tragic Pack sat in the court room waiting for the verdict to be read off to them. The evidence that had been presented was staggering in its volume and the list of crimes had taken at least five minutes to read off. Nick had timed how long it had taken the jury to reach their verdict.

"Ten minutes. Wow, that was fast!" They then read off the verdict that Nick had been fully expecting.

"We find all members of the Tragic Pack guilty on all charges."

The judge closed the court proceedings and Nick and the other members began to walk out of the court in their orange jumpsuits. Stepping out of the courthouse they found themselves greeted by a crowd that filled the street, and Mayor Lionheart standing at a podium before them with Judy on his right. Lionheart motioned them to stand next to him as the crowd cheered their entrance.

"Citizens of Zootopia! I present to you the members of The Tragic Pack! Of course, they have been found guilty on all charges. However, in the face of overwhelming public support, and in light of the deep corruption that they exposed, I would like to take this moment to officially pardon these citizens." The crowd cheered in unison at his words. Judy stepped over to Nick and gave him a hug. "Furthermore, I would like to announce a new program to revitalize the school programs and other educational institutions in the poorest areas of Zootopia. This program will be headed by none other than Dr. Miguel Sanchez, who helped to raise the money to cover the costs of the Tragic Packs actions." Mayor Lionheart went and shook each one of their paws, pausing by Nick to give him a little word of advice. "Don't you ever think of doing something like this again or I will have you in jail faster than you can blink." The smile that had been on Nick's face was replaced by fear.

Nick and Judy waded through the crowd and reporters to reach Judy's parents who had been watching their kits. As they drove back towards the apartment in their minivan, Nick handed Judy the notepad that he had tallied all of the times he had lied to her on.

"What's this?"

"It's the number of times I've lied to you in all of this."

"What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Well, I figure that for each time I lied to you, you could ask me to do something special." Judy's eyes lit up.

"Hmm… What if I wanted to use them up all at once on one big favor?"

"Uh, I guess you could do that." Judy had a mischievous smile on her face now.

"Great!" She turned around to face the back of the van, "Marcus, how would you feel about a little brother?" The other kits sounded off their approval.

"Awesome!" Nick turned a slightly paler shade of scarlet. Judy looked back at Nick who gave her a halfhearted smile.

"Really?"

"Really!"

Mathew was the newest addition to their family. A small white arctic fox, he would fit right in.


	17. Chapter 17

Welcome dear reader to the post word! If you have gotten here it means that either you have finished the story or you have tried to skip to the end. First of all, I would like to thank you for finishing the story, it means quite a lot to me. Second, I suppose I should admit that this story is still in need of some serious revisions. The character of Santiago, for example, was originally meant to have a change of heart when he met his son and thus spare the Canidae neighborhood, however I was told by a friend that it seemed a tad trite for a story that had seemed pretty smart overall. Hence, I changed it so that Nick used his own knowledge of the legal system to his advantage in helping to catch Santiago.

Variations on this story would probably better capture the essence of what I was trying to get across here. My main goal was to try and show that justice seems to escape the reach of the poor and minorities. Of course, in the real world that kind of injustice is often left unresolved and contributes to many social problems that we have in major cities today. Perhaps you will see potential in this story, or maybe it was just a mildly amusing way to kill a few hours. Whichever!


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